Nuffield Scholarship Q&A

Last October I was incredibly lucky to be offered an opportunity to complete a Nuffield Farming Scholarship, kindly sponsored by the Elizabeth Creake Charitable Trust and a Young Nuffield Award. My topic is "Can the UK improve the ethics of its dairy calf management whilst retaining profitability?" and I hope to share my experiences as it unfolds.

On my Instagram account (anna.writes.farms.rides) I asked people to submit questions about the application process so far. Information about dates and funding can be found on the Nuffield website.

How did you choose your topic?

Spoiler alert- I applied the year before, but for a project looking at control measures for Mycoplasma bovis; a cattle disease that causes calf pneumonia, mastitis, and joint issues. The application committee told me that my application was strong, but the topic wasn't a good fit.

I'm not sure why I didn't apply for the calf topic in the first case, but maybe it seemed too obvious as in my opinion it is the biggest issue affecting the dairy sector (if you assume that environmental challenges are a shared issue between agricultural sectors).

The industry is taking huge steps - by the end of this year euthanasia of healthy calves will be in breach of farm assurance regulations- and many individual milk buyers have already set a high bar. However, for farmers who don't sell to these contracts they will have less support to find a market for their calves. I hope that through my travels I can solutions for all farmers- and all calves.

When I was in Australia in 2017 I visited two businesses in Queensland who were selling milk processed on farm. Both had schemes set up where members of the public could adopt bull calves. While this wouldn't be allowed in the UK for a range of reasons, it opened my eyes to novel approaches.

I'm also keen to visit calf at foot dairies to see if this is feasible for farms who do not have the option to add value through on site processing e.g. if a farmer on a standard milk contract decided to rear all their calves on cows, could they run a viable business.

I also plan to look at lessons that can be learnt from the racing industry, which has successfully built a demand for horses leaving the industry.

What are you going to do?

At the moment I am conducting a survey of UK dairy farmers to gauge what they see as their biggest challenges e.g. do they need more information about selecting animals for sexed semen, or do they need better relationships with beef farmers/rearing schemes.

My current objectives are to look at how sexed semen can best be used (especially on block calving herds, where anything that impacts conception rates is a bigger issue), how can dairy beef be marketed, and how dairy farmers can breed beef x dairy calves that meet the requirements of the red meat sector.

I'll also be visiting calf at foot dairies to see what their challenges and opportunities are, and the feasibility of these systems. On the racing side I'll be speaking to organisations that promote ex-racehorses, as well as individual trainers and owners about the steps they take to ensure end of career care for their horses.

These will all be achieved through a mix of farm visits, conversations with milk processors, and trips to research organisations and commercial companies.

How has COVID impacted your plans?

The lockdown has had a big impact on both the application process and the Scholar experience thus far. Once you are invited to interview you are offered a mock interview, which this year of course was over Zoom.

The actual interview is just 20 minutes long (but so very intense) and is usually held in London. Ours were again on Zoom.

Since being offered the Scholarship our meetings and conferences have all been online, so we haven't met each other in person (or at least not this year- I knew a few of them beforehand). While this has worked really well it is I imagine a different experience to the norm!

Usually scholars start their travels after the Contemporary Scholars Conference in March. This year my travel plans are on hold until the lockdown lifts (and other countries are happy to see me). In the meantime I've made digital contact with a couple of people, and am hoping to travel within Europe by the end of the summer.

Where do you want to travel?

The UK, America, Jordan, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand. I am however open to change if other opportunities arise.

Did you get any help with the application?

Nuffield are really helpful! The regional offices connect with applicants once you set up your application, and a lady from Nuffield Cymru read through my application and gave me some guidance as well as recommendations for my photo. They also run webinars for potential scholars- and in normal years events around the country and receptions at different shows.

One of my friends is a Scholar and she helped too, as did one of my referees, who read it through and suggested some extra things to add.

Once I had the interview I was offered a practice interview, and Nuffield Cymru sent two existing Scholars to phone me with interview advice.

Has your partner been supportive?

Oh I loathe the term "partner"! My boyfriend is also soon to be my business partner though so...

Yes he has, although the whole process has involved a lot of me taking up the kitchen with Zoom calls or bits of paper with random farms and countries written on them.

I'm planning travelling around the last busy times on the farm, so that my absence has the least impact possible.

We're also hoping that after I've done the Nuffield part of my travels in America he will fly out and we'll have a week's holiday in New England.

Any advice for potential applicants?

Find a topic that you are really interested in; one that you can really fall into a wormhole while researching. I would say choose something that will have wider industry benefits, but I suppose there's nothing wrong in choosing something that will mostly benefit yourself either!

Definitely speak to your regional office and see what help they can offer, and get different people to read your application. Read previous Scholar reports (you can search for them on the website) to check if your subject has been covered and what you can offer that is different.

And look at what can be learnt from different sectors and applied to your topic.

Any concerns about applying?

Yes, someone once made a passing comment about Nuffield Scholars being conceited, so I have to mentally say to myself "don't be a twat" every time I start on the subject!

Fitting it in with everything else is also a bit of a challenge, but that just means being a bit more efficient with time management.

If you have any other questions feel free to comment below or send me a message. Please have a look at the Nuffield website which has all of the information- and you can sign up to hear about webinars and events- and if you are keen send your application in. I am still very new to the whole thing, but my experience so far has been really enjoyable, and I've (virtually) met amazing people in the industry.