Spearhead Forges Links with the Royal Agricultural University
Spearhead Machinery are delighted to have provided a new Multicut 460 rotary mower to be used at the Royal Agricultural University’s (RAU) Rural Innovation Centre to form part of student education within their land management courses.
Established in 1845, the RAU has a long-standing, global reputation for teaching and research, and offers a portfolio of more than 30 undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. The University farms are based at two locations, Harnhill Manor Farm and Coates Manor Farm, in close proximity to the campus. Totalling 491 hectares, they offer very different farming systems, and students are able to benefit through access to their physical and financial data.
The Rural Innovation Centre based at the University’s Harnhill Manor Farm in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, was officially opened in March 2014 following an investment of £1.2million and has extensive training capacity for both practical and classroom teaching.
The centre excels at bridging the gap between the laboratory and farmer and runs many academic trials for private agronomic companies. Alongside its scientific research, the University delivers a variety of vocational rural skills training which is available to both the public and private sector.
This year, Spearhead have provided a Multicut 460 which will be specifically used to demonstrate the cultivation process of land, in particular looking at soil composition, nutrition and increasing crop yield.
Discussions were led by Mark Bayliss, Export Manager at Spearhead and Nicholai Thomasin-Foster, Lecturer and Acting Manager at the Rural Innovation Centre, to deliver a further demonstrative and practical element to their education programme.
Keen to promote the use of this type of rotary mower to educate the young farmers of tomorrow, Mark commented “It is of particular importance to me, both on a personal and professional level, that commercial business and educational institutions work together to enhance our learning and share knowledge, and this can be achieved through many different support mechanisms be they practical or financial. Spearhead is keen to educate people through the utilisation of our product in their own environment, thus seeing the benefits with their own eyes.”
He added, “It is an honour to be linking up with probably the most recognised agricultural university in the world and we are looking forward to working with Nicholai and his team to support their education programme further.”
Nicholai Thomasin-Foster, who lectures in Farm Mechanisation at the University, added “The collaborative link between Spearhead and the University is key to the demonstration of today’s advancement in agricultural machinery and the importance that it plays in grassland management. We are able to bridge the educational gap from lecture room theory to practical application. Spearhead have taken a firm approach to product design that achieves the objectives in the field.”
For more information on Spearhead’s Multicut 460 product visit www.spearheadmachinery.com