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R2Kast - People in Food and Farming/All In
Tales of a Nuffield Scholar with Trevor Alcorn
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Today on the Tales of a Nuffield Scholar series I had the pleasure of chatting with Trevor Alcorn 🎙️ Trevor is a dairy farmer from County Tyrone, a CAFRE dairy development adviser, and a 2015 Nuffield Scholar whose topic asked a question many farming families still wrestle with today, does the family dairy farm have a future 🌾
We started with Trevor’s own story, farming for generations near Omagh, milking just over 200 cows on heavy clay soils with high rainfall, and balancing the home farm alongside his advisory role with discussion groups across Northern Ireland. There was something really grounding about hearing how he juggles both, and how much of his scholarship topic is rooted in lived experience 🚜
Trevor’s Nuffield travels took him to the US, China, Germany, France, Denmark, Ireland and across the UK. He spoke about seeing 20 cow dairies and 4,000 cow family farms in America, the rapid shift in China towards large scale corporate dairy units, and the collaborative dairy models in France that prioritise work life balance. It was fascinating hearing how different systems approach scale, ownership and family involvement 🌍
When pushed to answer his own question ten years on, Trevor was clear. Yes, the family dairy farm does have a future, but it must communicate, collaborate and innovate. That three word summary really stuck with me. So often it is not the technical side that holds businesses back, but conversations within families and willingness to adapt 🌱
We also spoke about his ongoing role within Nuffield, from helping lead the Belfast conference to serving as a trustee and working closely with the NextGen programme. Hearing his pride in the next generation of scholars coming through was a brilliant way to wrap up the conversation.
Thank you to NFU Mutual for their support of this project.
Enjoy! 🙂
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