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New Entrants to Farming: Setting up a Profitable Enterprise (Ayr) Event Summary

15 August 2018

A practical workshop for New Entrants was held on 15th August at Coldcothill Farm, Craigie by kind permission of Stewart Wilson.  Stewart has recently taken on a 5 year tenency of Coldcothill, where he is currently running a herd of suckler cows, growing some barley and selling haylage for horses.

The last several New Entrants meetings in Ayr have been office based with presentations on various topics focussing on profitability of a new entrant business.  This meeting was designed to make use of what participants have learned at previous meetings and apply it to a real life business example.

The meeting included guest speaker Robert Taylor of Galbraith Group, who covered finance for new entrant business and also gave his views on opportunities for new entrants and also highlighted some areas where businesses often fall down.

The evening then progressed to a facilitated discussion and farm tour, where the group were challenged to carry out a SWOT analysis of the farm, looking at Strenghts, Weaknesses, Opportunities and threats.  This was a very worthwhile session and got participants thinking about the host farm, as well as their own business.

Representatives from LEADER were also available on the night to make participants aware of the opportunities that LEADER offers.

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