Top dairy post for labour peer

LABOUR Peer, Lord Carter has been elected as the new president of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers.

Outgoing president Lord Grantchester, who held the post for two years, said UK dairy farmers had faced numerous upheavals during the past two years and the industry had undergone fundamental change. "I hope that Lord Carter's presidency will see stabilisation and improved returns for members of the RABDF

Lord Carter retired from active farming and consultancy when he joined the Government in May 1997 as Chief Whip in the House of Lords - a post which he held for five years. He is a past president of the British Institute of Agricultural Consultants, a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies, a Fellow and past president of the Institute of Agricultural Management and former chairman of the United Kingdom Co-operative Council.

He is current vice-chairman of English Farming and Food Partnerships and chairman of the British Chicken Marketing Group. For 20 years before joining the Government he was a director of a substantial farming company in Hampshire and Wiltshire which had three dairies, with nearly 500 cows, as well as other enterprises. He was also a partner in an arable farming enterprise in Oxford.