Funding Helps Finance Vet and Farmer Team Training
24/10/06

A series of training workshops focusing on practical and farm-friendly analyses of milk records start this autumn for dairy farmers, their vets and advisers. Funded by NMR and Defra’s Vocational Training Scheme (VTS), the one-day courses are targeting the rapidly growing number of vets, producers and advisers in the dairy sector who routinely rely on information to monitor the performance of their herds.

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“These one-day sessions are open to all producers as well as their vets and advisers, and are free of charge,” says James Hanks from PAN Livestock Services, who is co-ordinating the national programme with NMR area managers.

“We’re aiming for 15 people at each one and want to show producers and their advisers, first hand, the extent of practical management information that’s readily obtainable from their milk records. Having paid for milk recording it is frustrating to see so many producers and advisers not using their data to the full,” adds Mr Hanks.

“The Internet has transformed access to information. Close monitoring of herds, by producer and adviser, is not the time consuming and complicated process it used to be. These workshops will show how readily available the information is and its potential to support producers and advisers working together as an effective management team.”

To make the workshops highly relevant, laptops will be provided and producers will work on their own milk records with the InterHerd and Herd Companion programs.

Workshops planned for the autumn and winter spread from Devon to Northumberland. Details are available from NMR customer services or from the NMR web site www.nmr.co.uk. Additional workshops can be arranged in specific areas by contacting James Hanks on 07974 404614. The funding is for 72 courses in total over a three year programme.

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