The Great Beer Debate with Innovative Farmers held yesterday (Wednesday 4 January) saw a beer tasting with a panel of hop growers, a brewer and a maltster who discussed the challenges and creativity behind the pints.

Chaired by BBC Farming Today's Anna Hill, the event brought together guests from both the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) and Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC). Panellists found common ground with the audience as they discussed how farm innovation holds many solutions.

Speaking on the panel, grower Ali Capper, of Stocks Farm, Worcestershire border, said: "In April 2020 the beer went down the drain in pubs and in breweries due to Covid– and then it happened again at Christmas. There was no point growing for an industry that wasn't brewing, so we cut back our hop growing area by 25 per cent. But the brewers still only wanted half of what we'd grown. We need changes across the supply chain to give growers long-term contracts and a fair return. And I would ask people to be more mindful about the products they buy. Care about the provenance, care about the quality, and support local."

The event also celebrated British produce with a tasting that included beers provided by panellist Greg Pilley from Stroud Brewery, who even brought a brand-new beer for the audience to sample.

Alongside Hutchinsons, represented on the panel by Jonathan Blackman, Pilley is involved in an Innovative Farmers field lab testing hop varieties in a bid to identify disease resistant hops. He is looking for varieties that perform well in zero input, organic conditions – and that go on to make tasty beer.

He echoed comments from Capper who emphasised the importance of research and hop breeding programmes.

He said: "The biggest challenge as an organic brewer is getting the variety of hops, we don't have anywhere near as many as conventional brewers have and that's becoming increasingly more difficult in a warming climate. We set up this field lab because we wanted to secure our supply of hops and see which ones could survive in the UK."

Robin Appel from historic maltsters Warminster Maltings has been working with organic barley growers since 2002 after noticing the gap in the malting barley market.

He urged farmers to reduce pressure on crops by cutting use of chemical fertiliser and emphasised the need for shorter supply chains that better support farmers.

All agreed that farmer-led innovation was key – and Hutchinson's Blackman shared insights from the field lab he is involved in that is using predatory mites to tackle spider mites.

This method has been successful in apples but has been more challenging with hops as the whole plant is removed at harvest, also removing the predators' habitat.

But Blackman is also looking at another field lab that is growing cover crops with hops over winter, to see if this could keep the predatory mites with the crop from one year to the next.

Capper, who is involved with the cover crops field hops field lab, added: "Trying to get funding for long term, scientific field research is difficult in this country. But Innovative Farmers is brilliant - it's simple, quick, and accessible. From what started with four farms and a bit of help from Innovative Farmers, we now have 50 per cent of growers protecting their soils with cover crops over winter, which is a really big success story."

Innovative Farmers Manager Rebecca Swinn said: "We were delighted to be back at the Oxford conferences with our much-loved debate. The event was a great demonstration of the passion, expertise, and creativity of British farmers that we have seen in farmer-led research trials since we founded Innovative Farmers a decade ago. It was brilliant to get together and celebrate everything the farming community continues to achieve in challenging circumstances."

Find out more about how you can get involved with further Innovative Farmers sessions at Oxford Real Farming Conference by following @IFarmers on Twitter.

To find out more about farmer-led research with Innovative Farmers or to join the network for free visit innovativefarmers.org, where trial results are shared open source.