AP3A47: Cereal Management and Marketing

Module Provider:

Agriculture

Number of credits:

10 [5 ECTS credits]

Level:

H (Honours)

Terms in which taught:

Autumn

Module Convenor:

Dr MJ Gooding

Pre-requisites:

Co-requisites:

Modules excluded:

Module version for:

2006/7

Aims:
For the student to become familiar with the principles and practices of growing, assessing and selling cereal crops for different markets

Assessable learning outcomes:
The students will be able to assess a field experiment. They will be able to evaluate the consequences of cereal crop management on crop yield, quality and financial margins. They will have gained an understanding of the compromises that need to be taken in cereal agronomy due to legal, environmental, financial, climatic and soil constraints. They will know the grain characteristics used when determining the suitability of cereal grain for different markets and be aware of the different ways of marketing grain from the farm. The students will gain an understanding of how and why grain prices fluctuate for different markets over time.

Additional outcomes:
The ability to defend decisions before contemporaries. Experience in developing productive partnerships.

Outline content:
The effects of genotype, agronomy and environment on the yield and quality of small-grained cereals will be reviewed in terms of production, financial and environmental objectives.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
Pairs of students will be given grain from plots from a field experiment investigating various agronomic inputs on yield and quality. The students will evaluate the yield and quality of their grain by doing tests of moisture content, purity, thousand grain weight, specific weight, germination, grain protein concentration, Hagberg falling number SDS-sedimentation volume, blackpoint and fungal contamination. Lectures and guided reading will be used to enable the students to understand their results on the bases of treatment, site and climatic effects. Once the specifications of their grain are known the students will attempt to market their grain in a simulated selling exercise. This will require students to make decisions about the worth of their grain, when to sell it, and to convince others of its worth. A written report and oral presentation will require students to explain how the crop was grown with an explanation how crop choice, management and selling decisions could have been improved.
The report will also include statistical and gross margin analyses; explanations of the relevance of different grain characteristics for different markets; and suggestions for alterations to crop agronomy to achieve multiple objectives. Key references include :-

Contact hours:

Assessment:
Coursework
A written report and oral presentation as described above, by the end of the Autumn term
Relative percentage of coursework: 100%
Penalties for late submission
Standard University rule applies: 10% marks deducted for work submitted up to one week late. Work submitted more than one week late will be awarded a zero mark.
Examinations
None
Requirements for a pass
40%
Reassessment arrangements
Resubmission of report by the end of the Spring term.