The Cereals Challenge is a winter wheat growing competition for students and universities.

The Challenge is organised by Hutchinsons and Velcourt and takes place on the Cereals Event site with plots being judged on the open days of the event.

Six teams of four students are allocated a crop-plot within the Velcourt stand and attempt to grow the best crop of winter wheat. The criteria by which the crop plots are judged include:

• Input Costs assessment
• Estimate of Crop Yield
• Quality of recommendations made
• Timeliness of recommendations made
• Appropriateness of recommendations made
• Plot Judging panel overall assessment

The winning team receive a trophy and prize of £1000 (to share between team members) plus £500 for their college/university department. There are also trophies for the teams placed 2nd & 3rd.

2011 winners of the Cereals Challenge

All the competitors were final year students from Easton College, Harper Adams, Newcastle university, Riseholme, Sparsholt and Sutton Bonington.

The team from Newcastle University, comprising Jonathan Scholey, Robert Baker, Nick Peters and Henry Ward won the Cereals Challenge competition in 2011, followed by Lincoln University in second place and Harpers Adams University College in third.

Each team had been managing a plot of winter wheat since February in terms of agronomy and selling a portion of the crop. The judges included Dick Neil, Hutchinsons, Keith Norman, Velcourt and David Knott (MD of Patrick Dean, Cereals host farmer) who took into account the quality of their decisions, crop potential and profit made.