Monitors wanted

Last chance to help farmers in your area

Farmers and crofters are being given a final call to apply if they want to become a monitor farmer. Nine host farm businesses are sought for a new programme being run by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) and AHDB Cereals and Oilseeds.

The programme, funded by a £1.25 million grant from Scottish Government, is on the hunt for host farmers in areas across Scotland, including Mearns and Angus.

The deadline to apply to take part in the scheme is tomorrow.

Each of the nine new monitor farms will have its own management team and an associated business group, which will look at solutions and best practice before sharing its findings, both with community groups and more generally through various media channels, including a dedicated website.

Farmers interested in applying must meet certain criteria – farming has to be a fulltime profession for at least one of the family members and the farmers need to be willing to disclose information about their businesses with a group of neighbouring farmers and be willing to try innovation on their farms.

Facilitators will be appointed to work with the monitor farmers to show how the use of accurate information can help to improve the profitability of their farm and other similar businesses in the area.

Previous Orkney monitor farmer Steven Sandison, of Millburn Farm, said being involved was very worthwhile and brought great value to his business.

He said: “The importance of benchmarking the performance of my cattle was key from the experience.”

One of the Shetland monitor farm project facilitators, Graham Fraser, said becoming a host farmer was not the only way producers could get involved with the scheme.

He said: “This really is a fantastic opportunity and we’re looking forward to taking the project forward in the coming months.”

The project will run until 2020 and farmers will be expected to host around six farm visits every year.

More information about how to apply is available online at www.qmscotland.co.uk.

Steven Sandison became a monitor farmer.