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Is the grass always greener? New entrant farmers from across Europe to exchange experiences

Anja Hradetzky started her ‘Proud Cow Farm’ in 2014 and will take part
“This is a great opportunity for peer-to-peer learning and the sharing of lived experience between young and new entrant farmers in different country contexts, in order to contribute to innovation uptake and agricultural sustainability across Europe”

Supporting the next generation of new and young farmers is critical to the sustainability of agriculture in Scotland and across Europe, but how can we encourage young people to see farming as a future and worthwhile career?

This question will be at the centre of an exciting, international online event to be held on Monday 2nd November, co-hosted by the Scottish Farm Advisory Service and the EU-funded NEFERTITI research project, of which the James Hutton Institute is a partner.

The discussion will feature new entrant farmers from across Europe, who will share how they began in the agricultural industry and what they are doing differently from their predecessors. Contributions will be made from new entrants in Orkney, Ireland, France, and Germany, and who currently run dairy, beef, and sheep farms.

They will share their career pathways, including the challenges they have faced and the opportunities they embraced, from Nuffield scholarships to diversification processes. Each has taken different paths into the industry and they are all passionate about their chosen lifestyles and work. Audience members will be invited to pose questions and share their thoughts on the future of agriculture in Europe.

The webinar is part of the Farm Advisory Service’s New Entrants to Farming Programme event series. The NEFERTITI project supports farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange to encourage young people to see farming as a future and worthwhile career. The Farm Advisory Service is delivered by SAC Consulting, part of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC).

Susan Pirie from SAC Consulting, who is co-chairing the webinar with Dr Annie McKee from the James Hutton Institute, said: “This webinar offers a unique opportunity to hear first-hand what challenges and opportunities new entrants in other countries face. Their farming systems do differ slightly from ours, but there are many lessons to be learned in how they overcome their barriers.”

Dr McKee added: “This is a great opportunity for peer-to-peer learning and the sharing of lived experience between young and new entrant farmers in different country contexts, in order to contribute to innovation uptake and agricultural sustainability across Europe.”

The speakers in this webinar will include:

  • Anja Hradetzky, Germany: Anja was born in 1987 and started her ‘Proud Cow Farm’ together with her husband in 2014. It is located northeast of Berlin on the Polish border. They now lease 220ha and have 150 cows that graze the whole year round. The cows raise the calves and all the animals keep their horns. In the summer, the cows are milked on the pasture in the National Park Lower Oder valley. All the milk is processed on the farm and sold directly.
  • Thibaut Giraud (with Alizée Chouteau, NEFERTITI Hub Coach), France: Thibaut is a French farmer who produces beef in the region of Normandy. He created his farm only a few years ago, and he now has 30 Charolais cows on 75 hectares. His parents did not work in the agriculture sector, but he decided quite early that it was the job for him. Alizée Chouteau is a project manager working in the French Livestock Institute. She has worked on the attractiveness of livestock farming for several years and is now a Hub Coach for the ‘You can farm’ NEFERTITI Network in France.
  • Karol Kissane, Ireland: Karol is currently milking 100 cows on his dairy farm in North Kerry in Ireland. Karol worked away from the farm as an accountant in Banking and Financial Services returning to the farm full-time in 2013. Up to this point, it was a beef farm, but Karol has since converted it to dairy. He is a 2018 Nuffield Scholar, which gave him the opportunity to travel all over the world looking at agriculture in many different countries. His Nuffield report on "Review of Perception of Agriculture in Primary School Children and opportunities for developments" is now published.
  • Daniel Ritch, Scotland: Daniel is a dairy farmer based in the Orkney Isles.  He started farming in 2016 when he took on his grandfather’s farm. Daniel farms 70ha and has 90 dairy cows with all the milk sold to make Orkney Cheese.

To book a place visit www.fas.scot, email: fbskirkwall@sac.co.uk or call 01856 872 698.

This FAS webinar is organised in conjunction with the NEFERTITI and Euraknos projects.

The name NEFERTITI reflects the full project title: ‘Networking European Farms to Enhance Cross Fertilisation and Innovation Uptake Through Demonstration’. Further information about the NEFERTITI project can be found on the project website or via the NEFERTITI Scottish Hub Facebook page.

Press and media enquiries: 

Bernardo Rodriguez-Salcedo, Media Manager, James Hutton Institute, Tel: +44 (0)1224 395089 (direct line), +44 (0)344 928 5428 (switchboard) or +44 (0)7791 193918 (mobile).


Printed from /news/grass-always-greener-new-entrant-farmers-across-europe-exchange-experiences on 29/03/24 09:00:37 AM

The James Hutton Research Institute is the result of the merger in April 2011 of MLURI and SCRI. This merger formed a new powerhouse for research into food, land use, and climate change.