New chairman for NSA Northern Region
26th February 2015
It was an exciting evening at NSA Northern Region AGM, 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 retiring Chairman Adam Watson.
Adam continues as NSA Northern Region’s Trustee Manager on the national board. The newly elected Vice Chairman is Eddie Eastham, who also continues as the region’s Treasurer.
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. Mr Humpries started life as a shepherd in the Yorkshire Dales and went on to be Vice Principle and Hill Farm Director at Newton Rigg College, Cumbria, for more than 20 years, where he taught countless shepherds the skills of sheep farming and upland land management. Upon retirement, Mr Humphries became involved in many initiatives in the northern uplands and was appointed to the Government's Hill Task Force.
Reading the award citation, Adam Watson said: "More recently, Mr Humphries has devoted his time and energies to common land issues and is a driving force behind the formation of the Federation of Cumbria Commoners. He has tirelessly lobbied and campaigned on behalf of the commoners to ensure accurate payments are made and his investigations have led to several graziers recieving increased payments. Mr Humpries had been a previous recipient of the NSA George Hedley Memorial Award (2006), holds an MBE for services to agriculture and the rural community (2007) and in an Honorary Fellow of the University of Cumbria (2010)."
On accepting the award, Mr Humpries said it 'completed the circle' for his involvement in the sheep sector. He urged farmers to take up new technology and new ideas where they could, and to remember the Chinese proverb that someone who asked a question was a fool for five minutes, but someone who never asked a question was a fool for a lifetime.
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.”
