He writes:
Now in its 28th year, the Semex Conference has gained a reputation for taking a global view of dairy farming while discussing topics which are relevant to what we do on farm today. The theme was 'Countdown to a New Dawn,' a pertinent title with the changes that are inevitable with Brexit on the horizon.
The conference was a great learning opportunity with an excellent line up of speakers including high achieving farmers, academics and nutritionists from both the UK and the USA discussing the advances in genomic technologies and of course the opportunities that Brexit may bring to dairy farming.
Gail Souter, the NFU's chief adviser on EU Exit and international trade, started the conference with not only a reminder of the NFU's calls for continued access to frictionless trade, labour and volatility management but also a call to the supply chain that social and economic fairness is a must for a successful dairy industry. Gail also highlighted that dairy farm businesses are not typically reliant on seasonal labour but need access to good quality permanent labour, a requirement echoed by Ron Hutchinson, Agriculture Director at Muller. Rob demonstrated a buoyant forecast for the Muller business with brand development and the opportunities Brexit will bring for future displacement of imports.
The breadth of knowledge from speakers did not dissipate throughout the remainder of the conference with focus on supply chain relationships and improved productivity on farm. Dominic Brown from Kantar Worldpanel spoke about some positive trends for dairy consumption in the UK; a whopping 10% of all retail trade comes from dairy products with 60% of meal occasions featuring dairy foods. This evidence of support for our great tasting products should not be undervalued and forecasted shopping trends are providing further opportunity with online shoppers more likely to buy an additional three dairy related items than those visiting a store. With opportunity also comes challenge. A robust Kantar survey has found that half of all people surveyed could not decide if dairy fats are good for them so our nutritional messages need to be louder.
Each of the speakers chose to raise the negative images our industry is currently being subjected to from vegan groups. Vegans may only represent a small percentage of the population but they have loud voices and Dr Jude Capper among others challenged farmers to join campaigns such as #proudofdairy to counter myths levied at dairy farming and be mindful of how images can be misconstrued on social media.
It was therefore timely that Dr Judith Bryans updated the conference on the next phase of the jointly funded AHDB & DairyUK promotional campaign and urged farmers to get involved in telling our stories with the help of a toolkit found at www.tellitlikeitis.co.uk
I would encourage anyone to seize the opportunity to attend a future Semex Conference. The high proportion of farmers makes this a worthwhile couple of days to listen, talk and collaborate on the future direction of dairy farming. Great speakers made me think about both basic ways I can improve efficiency on farm and strive for technical excellence.