Business Ideas Mean Awards for SAC Students – Pinnacle Award Winners at Farmers Club
Farm business ideas from two SAC students have won awards in a prestigious business competition. Third year Agriculture students Colin Cameron of Dunblane and Scott Dewart from Balloch travelled to London from SAC Edinburgh and Ayr for the final of the annual Pinnacle Awards held at the Farmers Club in Whitehall.
Colin Cameron won the bronze award for his groups proposal for diversifying from sheep into Boer goat meat production. He was supported in London by Hilary Bennie of Thornhill, Stirling, studying Rural Business Management. Scott Dewart from the Ayr campus presented his ideas for the production of Wagyu beef. He received a special award.
The Pinnacle Awards were established in 1988 to encourage the management training of students preparing for work in the rural and land-based industries. The competition is sponsored by The Farmers Club, ADAS and the Cave Foundation, with help from the Guild of Agricultural Journalists. It is open to full-time students recommended by their college or university.
All eight finalists were assessed on both the originality of their ideas and their ability to communicate them. Each spokesperson gave a 10 minute presentation and faced 25 minutes of questioning from a panel chaired by Professor David Leaver, former Principal of the Royal Agricultural College and SAC researcher.
Doreen Hislop, SAC Programme Leader, Rural Business Management, commented:
The bronze award was an outstanding achievement for SAC against very strong competition from Royal Agricultural College, Harper Adams University College, Writtle College, University of Nottingham and Reading University. But both SAC students gave excellent presentations and thoroughly enjoyed the day in London. It was a great experience for them. I am looking forward to my first taste of Boer goat meat in the not too distant future.
Boer Goats, bred for their meat yield and carcase quality, were introduced from South Africa to Britain in 1987. Colins business plan, based on a Blair Drummond farm and worked up as part of their course work by his 5 person team, involved replacing a sheep flock with a goat meat business, the first in Scotland. Under the slogan You want it, we goat it the scheme would capitalise on goat meats healthy profile and a vast untapped market, especially amongst the ethnic communities.
SAC has entered the Pinnacle Awards for 8 years and this result matches our best achievement of two years ago when Jill Brown won the Bronze Award.
The plan Scott Dewart, a 3rd year Agriculture Student from Balloch, submitted involved the potential of producing Wagyu beef as co operative venture amongst enterprises where there is limited capital. It was an advanced case studies project and has received some commercial interest. Scott received help from fellow student James McLaughlin from Castle Douglas.
The two SAC students received their prizes at a Dinner in the Farmers Club from Mark Price, Managing Director of Waitrose. Colin Cameron received the Bronze Award and 400. Scott Dewart received a Special Award and 150. Both received a commemorative certificate and become members of the Farmers Club for a year. SAC received a cheque matching the sum the students won.
Mark Price said:
By encouraging young entrepreneurs to develop new and exciting business opportunities in the countryside, the Pinnacle Awards for Business Excellence can play an important part in our future. Harnessing the talent, energy and imagination of our youth in an environment that has so much to offer will benefit us all.
Stephen Skinner, CEO of the Farmers Club said:
The Farmers Club is 100 per cent behind the Pinnacle Awards again this year. The Farmers Club sees the awards as representing an important strand in their support for the development of youth and ideas within agriculture. All the elements are in place to make the awards in 2011 as exciting and successful as 2010’s.