College Lecturers Day
The RABDF College Lecturers Day is specifically designed to bring college lecturers up to speed with current topical issues in the dairy sector. It is hoped that not only the lecturers will benefit from attending, but also the future generation of dairy farmers they teach. The 2008 RABDF College Lecturers Day was held at Warwickshire College , Moreton Morrell Centre, on Wednesday 16th January. The event was kindly sponsored by the Defra Farm Health Planning Partnership and Warwickshire College.
The event featured a series of presentations examining the latest challenges facing the dairy industry including those influencing its future genetics, nutrition and management. Training and skills requirements for the next generation of farmers also came under the microscope along with advice on how to engage young people in positive farm health planning. Speakers included RABDF/Defra Farm Health Planning's Coordinator John Sumner, Richard Keenan's International Nutrition Director, Prof. David Beever, the MDC 's Director of MDC Breeding+ Marco Winters, Hampden Vets veterinary surgeon Ian Baker, BPEX Training Coordinator, Tess How and NFU's Chief Dairy Advisor Tom Hind.
“The dairy sector has led the way in providing college lecturers with up to date information to pass on directly to students,” said Mr Jonathan Clarke who heads Warwickshire College’s agriculture and countryside management team. “Working in a busy college environment we frequently don’t have the opportunity to hear about the latest issues, along with pipeline R&D and other cutting edge developments which we should be communicating to students. RABDF has filled this gap and I am calling on both beef and sheep sectors to follow suit.”
RABDF chief executive, Nick Everington explained: “We carefully designed the programme to bring college lecturers up to speed with our very complex and ever changing sector. Judging from the feedback it not only helped to improve their knowledge, but also encouraged them to instill some enthusiasm for dairying into their college students, who are our future life blood.”
Please click on the links below to access the presentations: