Just shy of 300 farmers, businessman and associates from throughout the north-east attended the Farm Management Association’s (FMA) annual dinner at the Marcliffe Hotel in Aberdeen.
The event, chaired by retiring chairman Alex Fowlie, was being held for the first time since Covid-19 and included a fantastic three-course meal, with beef donated by ABP Perth and tatties and vegetables provided by Benzies.
Prior to the dinner, the association held its AGM, where Kirsten Williams, a beef and sheep consultant with SAC, took over as chairwoman from Mr Fowlie.
Louise Urquhart, who runs Louise’s Farm Kitchen at Lumphanan, is the new vice-chair, alongside secretary Andrew Dalgarno, and treasurer Tom Cargill.
The highlight of the evening was speaker Roger Mercer from Mercer Farming in the East Midlands, who gave an inspiring talk on his family’s large-scale agricultural business and how they work with the wider community.
As well as running an arable enterprise and Packington Free Range, they also run Farm Fresh Revolution which is a food delivery project to schools in Staffordshire. The aim is to promote healthy eating, diet and nutrition, with more than 9,000 bags delivered per year.
The family’s education project called FarmLink, was launched to bring children onto the farm. Around 81 school visits on the farm take place each year involving 5,000 children.
The business also includes commercial and container storage, renewable energy production and chicken production.
Mr Mercer focused his talk on succession planning and return on capital invested which attracted many questions from the floor.