Developing sheep expertise

Sixteen consultants successfully completed the entire course.

The activity has been handed over to the KE team and they are planning to recruit another group of consultants in the autumn of 2018.​

The Problem

There is limited, industry recognised continuous professional development (CPD) for beef and sheep advisers in England. After graduating, professional development is often left to the individual with no formal or structural training scheme available that cover practical, grass roots training for professionals working with sheep producers.

AHDB have limited staff resource available throughout the country to deliver technical events and activity programmes and often require additional delivery from other organisations. At times, depending on the subject, the availability and access to a sufficient number of people to deliver this work is limited.

This project will provide participants with access to industry CPD and it will provide AHDB with contacts to individuals who have been trained to a minimum standard, who may be available to deliver work in the future. It would like to build on the success of the beef expertise group and extend the programme to the sheep industry.

Aims & Objectives

Recruit up to 16 advisers, consultants and vets who regularly work with producers (predominantly in England) to develop their technical knowledge on sheep related topics but also business and management skills. This activity is also a great way of making key people in the industry, who work with producers, more aware of the tools and technical information available from AHDB Beef & Lamb.

Approach

• Ensure well-trained and experienced consultants and advisers continue to be available to the sheep industry
• The programme will consist of five meetings that will be held from November 2016 to November 2017, which will be spread throughout England. Each meeting will be held over two days and count as ten hours of CPD
• A series of five meetings (the first to be held at the end of November 2016) covering breeding, health and fertility, feed and forage, selection for slaughter and business improvements, are planned through to November 2017