Over £220k of funding was announced at AgriScot to allow the formation of new Dairy Business Impact Groups across Scotland. The new groups, designed to allow knowledge transfer, to and between dairy farmers and industry advisors, are set to be rolled out across Scotland in 2016.
AHDB Dairy has been awarded 75% SRDP funding towards delivering the new Dairy groups. The funding is being made available through the SRDP Knowledge Transfer and Innovation fund which is jointly funded by the Scottish Government and European Union.
The balance of the required funding will come directly from AHDB Dairy levy income and the groups will be established and administered by AHDB Dairy staff working closely with the Scottish Dairy Hub.
Jon Parry of AHDB Dairy explains more, “We are delighted to have secured this SRDP funding, which along with AHDB levy monies will allow us to roll out this exciting initiative at a time when we are acutely aware of the difficulties being faced by dairy farmers in Scotland.”
“This new initiative will see groups formed across the main milk fields of Scotland with the objective of disseminating and sharing knowledge and best practice and taking advantage of benchmarking tools such as AHDB Dairy Comparable Farm Profit.”
“We are keen to hear feedback from the sector about who may like to be involved and where the groups should be centred.”
Each of the new dairy groups will have input from experienced consultants and experts to help with initial benchmarking exercises and ongoing advisory discussions.
AHDB Dairy believes these new groups will complement the successful Monitor Farm projects which they also currently jointly fund alongside Scottish Government.
