Meet the farmers newly elected to top roles with NFU Scotland – amongst them a long-serving Dingwall member
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THE men elected to the top positions of NFU Scotland come from a variety of backgrounds and boast very different skills.
Amongst them is a former Dingwall Academy pupil and trained vet who has been a member of NFU Scotland for over 30 years and will be familiar to many through his work with RHET (Royal Highland Education Trust).
The National Farmers' Union of Scotland is an organisation that promotes and protects the interests of the country's farming industry. It was formed in 1913, and has approximately 10,000 members who are farmers, crofters and others involved in Scottish agriculture.
Here's a potted history of each of the newly elected farmers.
President – Martin Kennedy, Lurgan Farm, Edradynate, Aberfeldy, Perthshire
Martin is a tenant farmer in Highland Perthshire and farms with his wife Jane and three daughters, Jillian, Katrina, and Yvonne.
They have 600 ewes and 60 cows on the farm rising from 800ft to over 2500ft.
Martin served two years as Highland Perthshire Branch Chair, before representing East Central region on the LFA committee in 2009.
Martin then went on to be vice-chair then chaired the committee for three years. He was elected vice-president in 2017 a position he held until being elected president of NFU Scotland in February 2021.
Vice-presidents
Alasdair Macnab, Kildun Farm, Dingwall, Ross-shire
Alasdair Macnab farms at Kildun, Dingwall with his wife Gill running a well-known pedigree Limousin herd, growing malting barley and hay. Alasdair went to Dingwall Academy and then Glasgow University graduating in veterinary medicine.
He worked in a vet practice in Ross-shire for 11 years, then joined the Government vet service in Inverness. He worked across Britain for 25 years gaining extensive experience in animal welfare, BSE, TB, the Swine Fever and Foot and Mouth outbreaks, disease outbreak management, import and export, pigs, poultry, transport of livestock, publishing research and crofting. He now farms, runs a consultancy advising farmers in legal disputes, assessing vets doing TB testing and writes a column for the Scottish Farmer.
His farming career started on his late uncle’s dairy farm at Humberston, Dingwall (now Dingwall Auction Mart) working with dairy, sheep and cereals. He was a crofter breeding cattle and sheep near Strathpeffer for over ten years before buying Kildun from his mother in 2005. On Kildun, Alasdair and Gill are developing some high value nature sites to integrate into the farm system.
Alasdair has been a member of NFU Scotland for over thirty years. On leaving the Government, he took on the role of vice-chair for Black Isle and Mid Ross branch in 2016 before becoming Chair and representing Highland Region on the Legal & Technical committee. He is currently vice-chair for Highland Region and took on the role of L&T Committee chair in February 2022.
Alasdair has also run a timber reclamation and flooring business, is a past RHET
Highland Chair and a Ross County season ticket holder.
Andrew Connon, North Quilquox, Ythanbank, Ellon, Aberdeenshire.
Andrew farms near Ellon in Aberdeenshire running a small commercial sheep flock whilst also doing some local contract work on a beef and arable unit, working with the Online Market Places SellMyLivestock and Graindex, and is a Director of Livestock Health Scotland.
He is married to Pauline. Son Andrew (24) and daughter Sarah (18) are employed on neighbouring farms. His father, uncles and cousin run the neighbouring family business focused on finishing cattle, sheep, and barley.
After graduating from Aberdeen University with an honours degree in General Agriculture, he joined Velcourt as a trainee farm manager in South East England before returning to a farm management position in Aberdeenshire.
Andrew then embarked on a commercial career in agricultural finance with NWS Bank and then JCB Finance. In 1999 he joined the family-owned machinery business of A M Phillip initially as a Branch Manager before becoming a director and then Dealer Principal until the business was sold in 2018.
He is a long-standing member of NFU Scotland New Deer Branch and a former Branch Chair. He represented the North East Regional Board for several years, elected Vice-Chair (2017) and Chair (2020).
In February 2021, Andrew was elected NFU Scotland Vice-President and currently sits on the following committees: ELU, Combinable Crops, Horticulture, Potatoes, LFA, Crofting, Milk, Finance and Renumeration.
Key issues for Andrew as vice-president have included input inflation and sector profitability, retailer labelling /promoting Scottish, the ongoing pig’s crisis, EU ban on seed potatoes, labour issues, tree planting on productive land, energy crisis, slurry regulations, furthering agricultural education and the decline in livestock and people from rural areas.
Farming or business story or picture from Ross-shire to share with us? Email newsdesk@hnmedia.co.uk
