Farmer Focus: Scots initiative attracts youth to dairy sector

Let’s start with weather. The rainy season has arrived in Stranraer. While zero grazing continues at the moment for low yielders, ground conditions will stop us first as grass is in abundance.

I just wish to clarify a point in last month’s article. I meant £195,000 less feed purchased, which last year was 12.2p/litre against 8.1p this summer. So yes, we blew a lot of cash last year.

In my time as chairman of milk at NFU Scotland, I was involved in the creation of the Scottish Dairy Hub, which is a one-stop shop for dairy farmers. The one service I am passionate about is provision of labour, especially for the youth. It has proved challenging to try to make all the right connections with education providers.

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It is amazing how many government schemes there are to assist. We managed to influence Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to hire a consultant to carry out a full review of the skills gap in the dairy industry. This week I will attend a meeting to discuss the outcomes.

My issue is that colleges seem a bit like dairy farmers – when the cubicle house is full, they don’t want any more. So what are the opportunities for young people with no connection to agriculture and no place in college?

In Dumfries and Galloway we have made a start:

Step 1: Certificate for work readiness. This is where a 16-19-year-old can work a minimum of 196 hours on a farm to experience the job and receive off-farm education about the workplace. They are paid £55/week by the SDS and at the end of the process the farmer can either employ him/her or decide whether they can get work readiness approval.

Step 2: If you employ the young person, you can apply for funding for a modern apprenticeship in dairy skills.

Step 3: In Dumfries Galloway we can then apply for funding for 50% of the salary paid for six months. In June we took on three recruits, who all start MAs this week. My vision is to see more examples of this throughout the industry.

I am about to fly to Agritechnica for a day visit. This will be followed by a trip to Agri-Scot, the highlight of my year.

Farmers Apprentice is Farmers Weekly’s response to the challenge of recruiting the best young business minds into agriculture, by providing a platform from which people from all walks of life can get a foot on the farming ladder.The winner will walk away with a one-year placement at UK Farmcare. If you think you have what it takes, apply online for the 2016 bootcamp.