DairyCo welcomes three new board members

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has announced the appointment of three new members to the DairyCo board.

Dairy farmers Chris James and Keith Davis, and Pete Nicholson, who was selected for his specialist knowledge of the processing industry, will join Chairman Tim Bennett and the nine existing board members to develop strategies that determine the direction of the AHDB’s milk division and provide a clear vision for all DairyCo activities that benefit GB dairy farmers.

Mr Bennett said: “I’m pleased to be welcoming Chris, Keith and Pete to the DairyCo board. I’m sure that they are going to provide a valuable contribution to the work that we do and I, along with the existing members of the board, look forward to working with them.”

Chris James farms in partnership with his brother in Pembrokeshire, milking 1,800 cows on four units covering 700ha. The cows are spring calving and the system is forage based in order to maximise milk output from grass. Chris is a member of the British Grassland Society and a local discussion group which he previously chaired.

Keith Davis, with his brother and family partnership, has a 125 cow herd of 10,000 litre high PLI pedigree Holstein cows that are block calved and milked with robots on a 130 acre farm in Gloucestershire. He also manages Lord Bledisloe’s dairy unit of of 600 cows on an intensive grazing system and is involved with a dairy consulting company called Dairyactive.

Pete Nicholson currently works for Robert Wiseman Dairies as Director of Milk Procurement, a role that he has held since 1998. Pete comes from a dairy farming background – his grandparents were dairy farmers in Lincolnshire and as well as helping out on the family farm Pete has gained practical experience both in the UK and abroad. Pete is a past Chairman of the Scottish Dairy Federation and the National Dairy Farm Assurance Scheme. He is currently Vice Chair of Dairy UK Scotland and represents Robert Wiseman Dairies on DEFRA’s Dairy Supply Chain Forum.

 

DairyCo’s aim is to promote world class knowledge to British dairy farmers so they can profit from a sustainable future.

To achieve this DairyCo aims to:

• Ensure farmers have access to world class information needed to improve competitiveness, GHG reduction and productivity
• Ensure farmers have access to direct and indirect support to help them improve their profitability through better business management
• Ensure that dairy farming is reducing its impact on the environment
• Ensure farmers understand the benefits of breeding and use the related tools

DairyCo is funded entirely by milk producers, via a statutory levy on all milk sold off-farm, at the rate of 0.06p per litre. This provides an annual income of around 6.5m.

DairyCo is a division of the statutory levy board, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).