Awards

Farm Health Planning Award Winner 2008

Louise Elliott, a student studying at Harper Adams University College has received the RABDF Farm Health Planning Award sponsored by Metacam for Cattle, an awareness raising initiative for younger members of the industry. At a presentation at the Dairy Event and Livestock Show, Stoneleigh Park, Coventry today, Thursday 18 September, Louise was awarded a £500 cash prize, and the college she represented received £500 towards a farm health planning project.

A £100 cash prize and certificate was presented to each of the three other finalists short-listed for the award: Jessica Collins studying at Duchy College; Rebecca Eaglen, Writtle College; and Rob Nightingale, University of Reading.

The award was introduced in 2007 as part of the Farm Health Planning (FHP) initiative, the set of guidelines developed in the last two years by a group of farmers, vets and specialist advisors, working in partnership with Defra. Open to students studying at an agriculture college in England, the entrants were required to prepare a 1,500 word essay demonstrating their understanding of proactive farm health planning on dairy and or beef units. They were asked to identify the current barriers to adopting such a strategy and how to overcome those issues in their quest to improve herd health and profitability.

The essays were judged by a panel representing RABDF and the FHP working group: farmer, Willie Whiteford; vet in practice, Andrew Praill and John Sumner, FHP coordinator and project manager at the Dairy Event and Livestock Show. “Each of the finalists showed a good understanding of the issues for consideration and were not short of ideas for improving the uptake of proactive health planning,” commented Mr Sumner.

“However, Louise had the winning edge with an essay which was well researched, it differentiated between the writing of health plans and proactive health planning, demonstrated an understanding of the reasons why farmers are reluctant to adopt a positive approach and of the potential benefits of doing so.”

Sponsor, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica’s Steve Williams added: “We are delighted to sponsor this important part of Farm Health Planning. The standard of all the entries was excellent, demonstrating the importance of farm health planning, but also the reality that it’s something that needs to have time invested in it in order to get the benefits from it. Louise’s winning entry showed an excellent understanding of the reality of the situation that many farmers find themselves in and had constructive suggestions for improvements for the future.”

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