The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
New bid to help improve aid to dairy sector
AHDB: Farm levy body announces team changes
AHDB has announced a number of changes to its team in Scotland.
The farm levy body has recruited Chris Stockwell as its new dairy knowledge exchange manager.
Mr Stockwell joins from East Coast Viners where he worked as a nutritionist. He has a degree in agriculture from Myerscough College, and he worked on dairy farms in England before moving to Scotland in 2005 to work with SRUC where his last role was head of agriculture and business management. In his new role Mr Stockwell will work directly with farmers to help them improve their business and technical practices.
Other changes at AHDB include the promotion of Claire Hodge to the role of senior knowledge exchange manager for the arable sector, with her remit widened to include cereals.
She will be supported by a second knowledge exchange manager, also working with the potato and cereals sectors, and recruitment for this role will begin shortly.
The levy body will also soon announce the appointment of another new team member, based in Scotland, with a focus on helping farmers compare and contrast their costs locally and nationally using benchmarking tool Farmbench.
“In order to best support farmers and growers across Scotland, we need great quality people in our team and I am delighted that we have been able to make these appointments,” said AHDB Scotland director, Paul Flanagan.
“On the arable side, our new combined approach will give the team greater momentum, particularly in vital areas such as benchmarking, soil management and working with agronomists. Claire is an asset to AHDB and I’m sure she will continue to excel in this new role.
“I’m also very pleased to welcome Chris on board. Having seen him in action already at the launch of our Strategic Dairy Farm near Biggar last month, I can see that his experience and commitment will help us strengthen our support to the Scottish dairy sector.”