Health & Safety Event
The pre harvest health and safety event was held this year at K Parrish & Son in Lower Stondon by kind permission of William Parrish. This event, one of eleven across the region, saw 80 members consider a variety of health and safety issues prior to the busy harvest season, including talks about lone working, tyre safety, vehicle weights and licences and a member case study. RCAT stepped in at the last minute to cover a session that was due to be delivered by the BCH Commercial Vehicle Unit who were unable to attend due to an incident.
Bedfordshire Fire Service were also in attendance and have just confirmed that they are purchasing couplings and adapters to be carried by all frontline Fire Appliances, as well as Specialist Appliances such as Water Carriers and off-road vehicles that attend field fires regularly. These will enable them to connect their appliances directly to 2 and 3 inch camlock water supplies found on most farm bowsers and water storage. If you have a different set up and want to make sure they can connect to your supply quickly if needed you need to source an adapter 63mm instantaneous female coupling like this. Instantaneous Female to Female BSP Adaptor > Fire Hoses
Bedfordshire Schools Day
Beds & Hunts NFU exhibited at the first schools day held by Bedfordshire Agricultural Education Foundation on 7 July at Shuttleworth. The event saw nearly 500 year 5 & 6 pupils attend and explore the 5 different zones (livestock, machinery, crops, food & countryside) to learn more about farming, food and the countryside. This was a really positive event with some great conversation with children and their teachers. It was fantastic to see so many members supporting the event exhibiting and volunteering in various roles.
Farm Walk
The County Catch Up Farm Walk held on 23 June was a great success despite being in the middle of a heatwave. JJ & Laura Ibbett very kindly hosted over 30 Beds & Hunts members who enjoyed a tractor and trailer tour of Wild Berry Farm followed by an excellent meal at JJ & Laura's pub, The Sun Inn in Felmersham with all the meat served coming from the farm.
Bedfordshire RCAT have had a busy first half of the year; 263 intelligence reports submitted, 14 arrests and more than 35 vehicles seized. Please remember that resource is allocated as a result of crime statistics, so please do report all incidents. To report any crime actually happening (including hare coursing) call 999, or, after the event, call 101 or online Report | Bedfordshire Police or Report | Cambridgeshire Constabulary