We always seem to be hearing that farming is an ageing industry and full of pessimism. But that does not have to be so.
At Askham Bryan we are backing the Fresh Start initiative, which is intended for young people who may have left college a few years ago and are starting to make their mark in the industry. Regular meetings allow discussion, technical updating and advice on how to take their business forward.
The Red Meat Industry Forum is arranging similar activities for young people in the region, for example a beef and sheep seminar for young people at this college in February.
With 2007/08 being the Year of Food and Farming in Education, organised by FACE, we are also focusing on schoolchildren. The year-long initiative is an opportunity for us all to do more to encourage young people in primary and secondary schools to consider the food industry as a potential career.
All too often nowadays farming does not even seem to get on to the long list of possible careers considered by schools I know this from the experiences of my own children.
Summer school
Last summer Askham Bryan ran a food summer school for 14 to 16-year-olds which, despite being run in July, outside normal school time, attracted 30 young people who all enjoyed it.
Turning to our agricultural courses, we can confidently say that they are all viable and running, albeit at lower numbers than in the 1980s, and our students are all optimistic about the future.
At Askham Byran we have young and more mature students on work-based learning, as well as full-time courses going right up to honours degree level. There are also successfully run courses at our centres at Bedale, Thirsk, Harrogate, Pickering and Guisborough.
While it is generally accepted that it is more difficult than ever to get into farming, we have plenty of students from non-farming backgrounds who think of interesting and enterprising ways of making a career in the industry.
One such student is Adam Bedford, who regularly writes in Farmers Weekly, and is currently on a Masters degree course at Newcastle University. He completed a BSc honours degree in Sustainable Land Use at Askham Bryan and secured a Yorkshire Agricultural Adventurers grant to study farming in New Zealand.
Recently he won a regional competition organised by Framework for Change for an essay he wrote on his predictions for agriculture in 20 years time. His verdict? "The future of agriculture is bright, exciting and full of opportunity...and very different."
I believe the food and farming industry can offer a range of exciting careers and now more than ever we need the enthusiasm and ideas from young people. At Askham Bryan we aim to not only develop that enthusiasm, but also to feed it back to the whole industry.
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NATIONAL BEEF TRAINING CENTRE UPDATE |
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Duncan Branch, Farm Manager
Results are starting to come in from our monitored beef enterprise, with 34 finished cattle sold to Dunbia at Clitheroe on a deadweight basis on 17 January. As we run a training centre the animals were a mixed group comprising bulls, steers and heifers, all purchased late last summer, including six Friesian bulls, six Limousin bulls and the remainder Limousin and Simmental cross suckled calves.
Some were sourced ex-farm, but most bought through Craven Cattle Marts at Skipton. They have been housed in straw yards and fed on approximately 25kg maize silage and 3kg concentrate per head per day. The average price received was £691.45/head or £1.99/kg dwt. Of the 34 cattle, 30 were conformation graded R or better and 30 were fat class 2, 3 or 4L. We are now calculating individual growth rates and returns to find out which animals have performed best, but they have left a positive margin overall, which is a pleasing result compared to recent years. Watch out for more analysis in due course. |
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