New Project Manager at MDC

Stuart Goodinson has joined the Milk Development Council (MDC) as Project Manager for the new Business Improvement in the Dairy Sector (BIDS) project, which aims to help dairy farm businesses better meet the needs of the changing market place.

BIDS, which has received almost £400,000 funding from Defra, is being set up in conjunction with the three biggest milk co-ops Dairy Farmers of Britain, First Milk and Milk Link. It uses simple comparisons of costs or physical farm data to give farmers the power and confidence of being able to understand strengths and weaknesses in their own businesses.

Stuart, who worked for Banks Cargill and then Frontier for seven years prior to joining MDC, was born and bred in Northumberland where he gained plenty of dairy experience before moving south to go to college at Seale Hayne.

"I'm pleased to be involved with such a positive project as BIDS that has real benefits to offer producers," says Stuart. "We can give dairy farmers some great tools to help move business forwards in these challenging times. Groups of farmers can identify gaps in their knowledge and MDC can use existing Farm Improvement Programmes such as grass+, pd+ and breeding+ to address them.

"Where information is not available, research can be undertaken and new tools and programmes developed to meet the demand," he explains.

Stuart believes his time in the arable sector will stand him in good stead. "I think the dairy sector could pick up some useful ideas from the arable boys when it comes to customer communications!" he says. "Arable farmers have learnt to shift their crop patterns as a direct result of the demands of their customers and I think dairy farmers are learning to be equally responsive."