Conference 2001

摘要

In reporting this visit one could simply say that Little Hall Farm has been growing mushrooms for nearly fifty years, has developed as a tray farm utilising up to 240 tonnes of phase I each week and is cropping currently at 6 lbs/ft~2 from a weeklylay of 14,250 ft~2 of bed area. Impressive enough statistics but only a fraction of the all that goes to make this farm what it is. We all undoubtedly enjoy farm walks. A mixture of curiosity and related emotions, under-pinned perhaps by the hope that wemight learn something useful for our own farms. We were, however, already prepared on this occasion to look for the 'lessons to be learned' as James Rothwell's farm enjoys a formidable reputation within the industry. Few, if any, of the visitors could have been disappointed by the visit. For many of us the adventure began in Chester, the location of this year's Conference, should you have failed to have registered this by now. Only 40 minutes away from Ormskirk. However, between the two lie the Wirraland Liverpool, twin challenges of near impassable watercourses and one of the biggest areas of industrial development in Britain. But the day started well as armed with maps, supplied by the farm, we all traversed the obstacles with nonchalant ease. Allexcept perhaps those so nonchalant they forgot to fill up with diesel. The visit began in a marquee in the car park where after coffee Jim Rothwell gave us some background to the farm and explained how things were organised for the day.