STUDENT Katie Landers, from Newton Stewart, Dumfries and Galloway who attends the Edinburgh Campus of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) studying a BSc in Agriculture is amongst four finalists in the prestigious Beef Shorthorn Society – Beef Student of the Year award.
Katie is in her 3rd year at SRUC, beat students from colleges and universities across the UK to win a place in the finals.
The award is designed to reflect the beef sector’s requirement for future producers, to demonstrate an understanding of the industry and the challenges it faces post Brexit – and how farmers will need to respond to in order to achieve sustainability and profitability.
To reach the finals, Katie had to write a 1500 word essay describing how a commercial suckler unit could introduce Beef Shorthorn to its current model in order to develop a sustainable and profitable enterprise – without support payments – post Brexit.
In addition to the essay, Katie also had to prepare a 140 character tweet which read “@Beefshorthorns long living, milky, premium promising & the key to sustainability… Payments/no payments they’re the breed for every need!”
The final judging will take place on Tuesday 28 March in Edinburgh where each of the finalists will appear for 30 minutes in front of the judging panel. Katie will be required to give a presentation discussing the suckler beef sector’s future and demonstrate her commitment to progressing her career within the beef farming sector.
Kate said “I am absolutely thrilled to be accepted into the final for the Beef Shorthorn Student of the Year 2017! Being from a pedigree Beef Shorthorn background, I have grown up with the breed and have become very interested in its progress over the years. It is a breed that serves each purpose and is now getting full recognition for its beneficial potential to the industry.”
Dr Bill Dingwall, Agriculture Programme Leader said: “Being aware of Katie’s passion for Beef Shorthorn cattle I encouraged her to enter the competition and look forward to accompanying her to the final. The Beef Shorthorn Society is offering a very substantial prize for the winning student and their college/university and it would be great for Katie if she were to win in the inaugural year of the competition.”
The winning student will be awarded £2000 and a further £1000 be will awarded to the winning student’s college to be spent on a beef related project.
We all wish Katie the best of luck at the finals.
Photo credit: S Jolly Photography
