Dairy Event and Livestock Show News

RABDF Farm Health Management Awards 2011
12 September 2011

Nathan Rhys Williams, a student studying at the University of Liverpool School of Veterinary Science, and Sarah Anne Moore, an FdSc Agriculture student at Duchy College have each received the RABDF Farm Health Management Award sponsored by Metacam for Cattle, an awareness raising initiative for younger members of the industry. At a presentation at the Dairy Event and Livestock Show, The NEC, Birmingham, today Tuesday 6 September, Nathan and Sarah were each awarded a £500 cash prize.

A certificate was presented to the two other finalists short-listed for the award: Sarah Jane Gay studying at the University of Cambridge Department of Veterinary Medicine and Andrew Eastabrook studying BSc Hons Agriculture with Animal Production Science at the University of Newcastle.

The award was introduced as part of the Farm Health Planning (FHP) initiative, a proactive approach to farm health planning in the cattle sector developed in the last five years by a group of farmers, vets and specialist advisors, working in partnership with Defra. Open to students studying agriculture, and to veterinary students, the entrants were required to prepare a 1,500 word essay demonstrating their understanding of proactive farm health management on dairy and or beef units. They were asked to demonstrate an understanding of the cost of disease and its financial impact on business performance as well as the environmental implications and likely impact on meat and milk quality.

The essays were judged by a panel featuring dairy farmer and RABDF Council member, Lyndon Edwards; veterinary surgeon, Andrew Praill and John Sumner, dairy consultant and competition co-ordinator. “It was evident that the entrants had a good knowledge of the most common diseases that affect cattle performance and demonstrated a much better ‘headline’ understanding of the philosophy of farm health management compared with finalists over previous years, which is encouraging and also with some interesting takes on the subject,” commented John Sumner.

“However, Nathan and Sarah Anne had the edge. Nathan took a simple, but persuasive approach to his essay demonstrating a mature experience of the wider issues surrounding farm health management, while Sarah Anne made good use of research work in demonstrating a clear understanding of the issues involved, including economics, from a farmer perceptive.”


Steve Williams, cattle business unit manager of Boehringer-Ingelheim Vetmedica, manufacturers of Metacam the product sponsor of the competition added: “Once again, we are delighted to sponsor this important part of Farm Health Planning. It is very encouraging to see such high quality essays from the veterinary and agricultural students.”


Nathan Rhys Williams from the University of Liverpool receives his Award and Certificate from RABDF President John Alvis.


Sarah Anne Moore from Duchy College receives her Award and Certificate from RABDF President John Alvis.

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