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F A R M S K I L L S
Sophie Throup
FarmSkills Manager
Training Initiative of
the Year
Sponsored by
Vétoquinol
WINNER - POULTRY INDUSTRY,
Minster Veterinary Practice
‘An excellent submission from a company
which clearly puts training at the forefront of
its operations; the scale and content of the
training is very comprehensive for commercial
poultry production. They are also willing to
‘train’ upwards by taking part in industry
organisations. The desire to work with other
organisations, such as Nottingham University,
Defra, and Toulouse Vet School is also very
forward thinking.’
Knowledge Transfer
Award for Pig
Sponsored by
Vet Perspective
and Farm Vet magazines
WINNER - PIG PRACTICE, Parklands
Veterinary Group
‘Similar to every other Pig Practice, Parklands
have witnessed its clients suffering from
financial pressure with significant increases
in feed costs not being reciprocated by
appropriate increase in carcase values.
Despite this Parklands has continued to invest
in training and services for the benefit of its
clients with the ability to ‘Transfer knowledge’
being the basic cornerstone of the practice.
Parklands is unique in Northern Ireland in that
it is the only veterinary practice with LANTRA
approved trainers as well as Accredited
specialist LANTRA pig training courses.
Recognition of this resulted in David Mulligan
(Practice Manager) being co-opted onto the
LANTRA Council in Northern Ireland. This
work in training and education has been
recognised by our own OvertheCounter
awards in 2012’.
HIGHLY COMMENDED - PIG PRACTICE,
Bishopton Veterinary Group
‘Training and knowledge exchange has been
a core part of the pig business at Bishopton
Vets for over 20 years, as their vets work to
improve the health and welfare of animals
in their care through skills and knowledge
improvement on farm. Bishopton were
nominated by Richard Lister of J.C.Lister Farms
Ltd, who said ‘They have put a great deal of
time and effort in trying to make this Regional
Pig Health Project successful. In addition their
staff training has played an important part
in achieving excellent performance on
many farms.’
WINNER - PIG VETERINARY
PROFESSIONAL, Duncan Berkshire
of Bishopton Veterinary Group
‘Having achieved a Highly Commended at
the 2011 Pig and Poultry Marketing Awards,
Duncan has not rested on his laurels. He
received two nominations for this category,
from Alex Greensit, and Anna Longthorp, of
Anna’s Happy Trotters, who says ‘Duncan has
an endless enthusiasm for what he does and
you can tell he really does care about the job.
He is able to explain to us mere pig farmers,
in layman’s terms, various topics as they arise.
WORKING
TOGETHER
FOR A HEALTHIER FUTURE...
23
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
Pig and Poultry Marketing Awards
The 2013 Pig & Poultry Marketing Awards took place in London on 9th May,
designed to reward production excellence, marketing communications and
knowledge transfer. Three of our XLVet member practices were winners in
their categories for their training excellence.
Duncan unequivocally makes sure that what
he explains to us is not just understandable
but he also manages to keep our interest
through his sheer passion. We have all
learned a lot from Duncan since we have
been working with him and know that our
practices, production and our health status
have improved as a consequence.’
Knowledge Transfer
Award for Poultry
Sponsored by
Vet Perspective
and Farm Vet magazines
WINNER - POULTRY PRACTICE -
Minster Veterinary Practice
‘The Minster Veterinary Practice is a 36 vet
mixed practice, with recent increases allowing
for a national coverage for poultry clients but
has also challenged the business in terms of its
system management and both internal and
external knowledge transfer. Minster consider
internal communication to be key to providing
a first rate veterinary service. An outside
consultant was brought in to appraise the
communication within the poultry department
and made several recommendations - which
have all been actioned.Clients are encouraged
to get involved, such as attending postmortem
examinations and discuss the issues on the
farm, making them stand out as winners’.
Alastair Johnston, Duncan Berkshire, Karen McConnell,
David Mulligan with their awards
Online booking
is here!
We are launching a new FarmSkills website and online
booking services from 23 May to help you find out what
courses we’re running, check whether they have spaces
on them and book yourself on straight away! We’re really
hoping that this new service will help make booking onto
courses even easier and help put you in touch with the
latest courses to keep your skills and techniques up to
date on farm. Log on to
www.farm-skills.co.uk
to
find out more!