A MAJOR farming conference is being held in Worcestershire later today.

The conference, at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern, begins at 3.30pm and runs through to 10pm with a host of key speakers - among them Graham Redman, a partner at the Andersons Centre LLP; George Eustice, Minister of State, DEFRA; Stuart Agnew, UKIP MEP; Mike Gooding, farmer and former chairman of the Oxford Farming Conference and others.

Kicking off the conference this afternoon will be Kate Adams, who grew up on a dairy farm in Herefordshire.

She now heads up a team of advisers for the Wye and Usk Foundation, a local rivers trust delivering agricultural advice projects across the Wye catchment to improve water quality. Her lecture is entitled - How is a passion for preserving soil instilled in modern farmers? From birth, bear, education or regulation?

Following her onto the rostrum will be Sophie Edenborough whose talk is entitled - No antibiotics ever - an option for the UK poultry industry?

She is based in South Shropshire and although not from a farming background she has been working in the industry for the last seven years and currently works for Liquid Mineral Services. They primarily manufacture liquid mineral and vitamin blends supplemented to dairy cows via the drinking water using the company’s bespoke automated dosing system.

She has recently been on a study tour in the Netherlands, Brazil and the US meeting with companies and professionals that were involved in reducing or removing anti-biotics from poultry production.

The topic the four male speakers will be discussing is - Do farmers need the EU?