Free risk management workshops for livestock farmers

A series of 25 free workshops and one-to-one consultancies will be held across England to help livestock farmers identify and manage risk within businesses.

These are being run by AHDB Dairy, alongside AHDB Beef and Lamb and AHDB Pork, as part of a Defra initiative, using EU Aid Adjustment Scheme funding.

Each workshop is free of charge and will assess how farmers can manage on-farm risks such as milk price volatility, threat from disease and rising feed costs, alongside external factors like political policy, extreme weather and family issues.

See also: Rethinking cattle performance – improving dairy beef management

At the regional workshops, producers can also sign up for free one-to-one on-farm adviser support to identify risks and help set objectives to help minimise them.

One-to-one consultancy sessions consist of a three-to-four hour session with an adviser, to look in more depth at the risks identified during the regional workshops and produce an action plan to implement changes to farm businesses.

The workshops will be recorded and posted as a webinar on the AHDB website, for farmers who are unable to attend in person.

The EU Aid Adjustment Scheme is a €500m (£429m) pot for European farmers to help deal with market volatility and difficult global markets, of which the UK is entitled to €30m (£25.7m).

A full list of regional workshops and the webinar can be found on the AHDB Dairy website.