You are in > Home > News & Events > News > NFUS President Jim Mclaren helps Farmers Face the Future – SAC Outlook in Dingwall - Facts & Forecasts For Farmers in a Changing World

NFUS President Jim Mclaren helps Farmers Face the Future – SAC Outlook in Dingwall - Facts & Forecasts For Farmers in a Changing World

SAC News Release Ref. No: 10N90
Published: 25 Oct 2010

NFU Scotland President Jim McLaren will be at Dingwall and Highland Mart on Monday 1st November. He is keynote speaker at SAC’s final Outlook Roadshow event of 2010 replacing NFUS colleague John Picken who is unable to attend. The evening meeting is the third in the series organised around Scotland by SAC. Jim McLaren and two SAC experts will give their interpretation of what lies ahead for producers facing a period of real change.

Within the next twelve months the EU Parliament and member states will agree another major reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. It will herald significant changes for agricultural incomes and subsidies, with important effects on rural Scotland. Meanwhile, with world market prices remaining volatile, those with decisions to make about livestock or cereal businesses are feeling vulnerable and uncertain. How they react could influence the economy of the Highlands for years ahead.

SAC’s event in the mart at Dingwall follows similar gatherings in Oban and Dumfries. While they featured sheep and dairy issues, this gathering will focus more on the arable sector, recognising the importance of cereal production to the area. Starting at 7.30 pm and chaired by SAC Board member David Green, the meeting has been planned to allow an opportunity for question and debate after the presentations from the three speakers. It will end at 9.30 pm with tea and coffee. 

In March next year Jim McLaren steps down after four years in the NFUS top job. It has given him a unique insight to international food and agriculture policy and an appreciation of the issues farmers worry most about. In the context of the forthcoming CAP reforms he will comment on what they might mean for Scottish farmers, especially those in the arable sector.

The two SAC expert speakers are Douglas Bell and Julian Bell, from SAC’s Rural Policy Centre. Douglas Bell will focus on livestock and offer his analysis of activity in the livestock markets at home and abroad. He will relate it to the positioning and posturing in the build up to those CAP reforms. Douglas understands better than most the issues behind the “Pack Report” which, when published, will inform the Scottish Government’s approach to the CAP reform debate.

Julian Bell is widely respected for his knowledge of the cereals markets and can give an insight into trends and movements across the globe as weather, circumstances and speculation all add to the mix.

Julian says “With grain prices spiking for the second time in three years,  price volatility is once again at the front of farmers minds. Are higher prices a blip or a trend? Should they be making deals to sell their grain before next harvest or waiting?  Getting marketing wrong can quickly leave arable farmers in the red so as  well as considering factors driving current and future prices farmers should also be taking steps to manage the risk that lie ahead”.

SAC’s Outlook Events receive funding from Scottish Government under the “Success Through Knowledge” programme.  

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

News Release Issued By

Mr Ken Rundle
Senior Communications Officer
SAC (Scottish Agricultural College) Work SAC, King's Buildings, West Mains Road,
Edinburgh
EH9 3JG
TelWork 0131 535 4196

Add to Address Book | Help