As the first E newsletter of the year from RABDF I would like to start by wishing you a Happy New Year. Although it’s not got off to the best start with rising Covid cases, lockdown and the dreaded home schooling I’m thinking (and hoping) it can only get better from here.
We had a busy start to 2021 with last minute plans being put in place for Dairy-Tech Online and compiling the official event guide, which will appear in this month’s British Dairying.
Uptake for the fortnight-long event has been tremendous with bookings reaching a thousand in the first couple of days of registration. There really is something for everyone with some big industry names kicking off the event including Farming Minister Victoria Prentis and AHDB Chair Nicholas Saphir.
Although it doesn’t replace the face-to-face event, what it does do is make it accessible to everyone. There are some key themes being discussed such as milk markets, ELMs and animal welfare that are relevant to every dairy farming system regardless of size, type, and location.
We also have a whole session dedicated to Brexit and the impact it may have on the UK dairy industry. It will be taking place exactly six weeks after the leaving the single market. Although there’s been some disruption to dairy companies by the time the Brexit session takes place on 16 February, we will know better what impact the new trading rules will have on immediate short shelf-life dairy exports, and what the medium term might hold for imports and exports, and other details.
Our overseas speaker sessions have been gaining a great deal of interest from delegates. We have four farmers speaking from New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia on a range of topics from mental health, to grazing. If you have yet to check out the programme of activity you can do so by visiting dairy-tech.uk/. All the sessions are free and signing up is easy.
In other news, we are in the process of digesting the results from the labour survey, a big thank you to those who completed it. We will be bringing you news about this in the coming weeks.
Unfortunately, on-farm judging for the NMR/RABDF Gold Cup has been postponed due to Covid. This will resume when it is safe to do so. We have six fantastic finalists vying for the prestigious title in what will be the 100thYear of the Gold Cup. We hope we will be able to host the Gold Cup event at 2019 winner Robert Sloan’s farm in the spring as well as an open day at the 2020 winner in the summer. Only time will tell depending on how the pandemic progresses and whether it is safe to do so. We will of course, keep you posted.
I hope you are keeping safe and well and continue to do so.
Best wishes,
Matt Knight