CALU Centre for Alternative Land Use

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CALU NEWS - August 2006

OPEN DAYS
CALU's season of open days has got off to a busy start, with around 100 people attending the novel crop open day at Henfaes.
Over the next few weeks we have a range of activities going on - see the events page for full information.
Biomass - there will be two open days at CALU's energy grass demonstration plots during October (11th Carmarthen, 18th Caernarfon).
Herbs - the herb production project is holding an open day on 5th September, at the Welsh College of Horticulture.
Woodlands - a training day focusing on Farm Timber: Products, Processes and Marketing will be held at the Wentwood Timber Store on 10th October.

AMY JOINS CALU TEAM
We are delighted to welcome Amy Dutton to the staff of CALU. Amy, who has just completed a degree in Environmental Science at the University of Wales Bangor, will be working with CALU's horticulture team at the Welsh College of Horticulture, Northop.

Visitors to CALU's stand at the Royal Welsh Show may already have met Amy, as she was running the herb exhibit in the CALU tent. Amy will be involved with commercialising this project over the coming months, as well as managing the novel crop demonstration plots at Northop.

NEW TECHNICAL LEAFLETS
Three new technical leaflets will soon be available from the CALU website.
Anaerobic Digestion provides a concise overview of this concept;
Health and welfare of farmed deer follows on from the introductory leaflet produced last year, focusing on the most common health problems encountered when farming deer
Sweet chestnut production provides an overview of the production and potential uses of sweet chestnut trees.

CALU AT THE SHOWS
The Royal Welsh was a huge success for CALU with a large number of people visiting the stand.
CALU will also have stands at the United Counties Show and the Anglesey Show. The displays are focusing on field scale horticulture, herb production, biomass production and novel crops.

The CALU stand at the Royal Welsh Show

WELSH COLLEGE OF HORTICULTURE SUCCESS AT THE SHOWS
CALU partner, the Welsh College of Horticulture, is celebrating its success at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show and the prestigious Tatton Show.

The College won a large gold at the Royal Welsh for its show garden (pictured right). At Tatton, the College won a gold in the floristry section with two bronzes for its bedding display and back-to-back garden.

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e-mail: calu@bangor.ac.uk

SUPERMARKETS JOIN BOX BANDWAGON
Tesco and Sainsbury's have announced that they intend to launch organic produce boxes this autumn.
The popularity of vegetable box schemes has grown steadily and the supermarkets now think there is sufficient momentum in the market to make it worth their while joining in.
Tesco has said that it will try to source the produce for its boxes as locally as possible. Their box, which will contain 10 items of vegetables and fruit, will retail for £11.
initially, the boxes will only be trialled across a limited geographic area.

CALU exists to transfer technology to any business in Wales that is interested in horticulture, biomass, alternative crops, alternative livestock and/or farm woodlands.

CALU is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government