NSA Northern Region AGM 2015
Date: 25th February 2015
It was an exciting evening at NSA Northern Region AGM on the 25th of February, with Greg Dalton elected as the new regional Chairman. Greg has served a two-year term as Vice Chairman and said he was looking forward to taking the top job and continuing the good work of the retiring Chairman Adam Watson.
Greg runs an upland farm (the farmhouse door is situated at 1,500ft above sea level) with a flock of 600 pure Swaledales and 40 Limousin cross suckler cows. Greg also sits on the Swaledale Council and is a Director at Middleton in Teesdale Auction Mart.
Adam Watson continues as NSA Northern Region’s representative on the NSA Board of Trustees.
The newly elected Vice Chairman is Eddie Eastham (pictured left), who also continues as the region’s Treasurer. Eddie, recently retired from Naddle Farm, Bampton, Penrith but will use his spare time to campaign for upland issues and as well as being a co-opted member of the NSA UK and Policy committee.
NSA Northern Region’s annual award for outstanding contribution to the sheep industry in northern England – the T.I. Allinson Memorial Award – was presented to Andrew Humphries MBE. Andrew is a past Newton Rigg College Hill Farm Director, who, after retirement, became involved in many initiatives in the northern uplands. He was appointed to the Government Hill Task Force and has also lobbied and campaigned on behalf of the Cumbria Commoners to ensure accurate payments are made.
The AGM was followed by three guest speakers – JP Garnier from Eblex’s export team, NSA Communications Manager Joanne Briggs, and NSA Next Generation Ambassador James Drummond.
Joanne reports: “The three presentations made for a very positive evening, with plenty of NSA activity to talk about, an enthusiastic report from James’ experience as an NSA Ambassador, and JP’s very upbeat view of the export market. Spending a lot of time on the continent means JP has a different view of the UK sheep sector, saying it is the only profitable lamb producer in the EU and has successfully cornered the European export market, providing 43% of lamb eating in the EU. He said the UK was in a very strong position and, in a growing export market, was the first place for people to come to look to by product. It was very heartening to hear such positivity for our sector and to know there is demand out there for any increase in production.”
