Scottish membership of Dairy Pro doubles
Professional development programme Dairy Pro has seen its Scottish membership more than double in three months.
The growth in members is due to Scottish Government and AHDB funding which has seen the membership fee waived for 2018 for all existing and new Scottish members. Scottish farmers can register for free now by visiting www.dairypro.co.uk. Current members will all be eligible for free membership when membership is renewed this month.
AHDB Dairy Knowledge Exchange Manager Helen Brookes says: “While we are really pleased to have doubled Scottish membership of DairyPro we really want to build on that and get at least one person per farm business in Scotland signed up. Schemes like this help farmers demonstrate they are continuing to learn and develop their skills, which we think is vital to the health of dairy businesses.”
For Ayrshire dairy farmer Andrew Taylor, who also works part-time as an agricultural consultant with SAC Consulting, the scheme has allowed him develop a useful record of development, one which will help him prove his professionalism to those he works with in the future.
He says: “It’s a really useful system, it helps you find lots of relevant meetings and events which then have a record of and of course you can bring all that learning back on farm and put it into practice.”
Dairy Pro is a professional development scheme; members establish an online profile where they record activities eligible for points and build up to becoming Dairy Pro Endorsed. Eligible activities include entrepreneurship classes, dairy discussion groups, technical workshops and meetings, as well as large scale events such as Dairy Tech and AgriScot.
Once a member has reached 20 Dairy Pro points in any one year they become Dairy Pro Endorsed, which demonstrates their professionalism to their colleagues and peers. Members can then use the Dairy Pro Endorsed logo for the year they are endorsed on their website, marketing material, CVs, etc.
Scottish farmers can sign up for free membership of Dairy Pro now by visiting www.dairypro.co.uk.