Friars Moor Veterinary Clinic win Dairy Team of the Year
HGKC client Friars Moor Veterinary Clinic’s farm team were named Dairy Team of the Year at this year’s British Dairying Cream Awards in recognition of achieving great results from their innovative campaign to encourage more responsible use of antibiotics.
The aim of the Cream Awards to showcase some of Britain’s brightest and best working in the dairy industry.
A prestigious group of judges presided over the entries, including: Meurig Raymond MBE, President of the NFU; David Cotton, Dairy Farmer and Dairypro Chairman; Sean Rickard, Economist; Mike King, Farmer & Chairman RABDF; Nicholas Saphir, Executive Chairman OMSCo; Rob Drysdale, Consultant Vet; Nick Green, Operations Director Lye Cross Farm. The Chair was Alan Whibley owner and Publisher of British Dairying.
The winners were awarded on the evening of 7th February 2018 at Chesford Grange Hotel, Warwickshire, where Jay Rayner gave and inspirational keynote speech, and the awards were compéred by Sean Sparling. Friars Moor Veterinary Clinic (FMVC) were delighted to be named Dairy Team of the Year.
In December 2014, the European Medicines Agency published scientific advice on the risk to humans from antibiotic resistance caused by the use of high-priority critically important antibiotics (HP-CIAs) in animals.
In response, FMVC implemented a campaign, starting in 2015, to eliminate the use of HP-CIAs from their practice dispensary and all their farms. By summer 2017 they no longer held HP-CIAs in their dispensary and had found no situation where they thought they were necessary to treat livestock under their care. At the same time as focusing on the HP-CIAs, FMVC initiated a drive to use better management, housing and nutrition on all their dairy farms to reduce overall antibiotic use, focusing on preventing disease before it happened.
In further recognition of their success, FMVC hosted industry meetings for Barbers and Arla, demonstrating an across industry approach to tackling the problem of over-use of antibiotics; and in Spring 2018, Jenny Bellini will be going to Zurich to join a workshop with the Swiss Bovine Health Department and veterinary representatives from around the world, to speak about their successful campaign and how they achieved it.
It was in recognition of this work that they were deservedly rewarded with the Dairy Team of the Year award.
Jenny Bellini said:
‘It was absolutely fantastic to attend an award ceremony showcasing the finest people the UK dairy industry has to offer. We were delighted to win dairy team of the year, demonstrating exactly what Friars Moor Livestock Health is all about. Having a brilliant team from directors, assistant vets, to clinical support staff and office staff, allows us to achieve great results, with our forward thinking innovative farmers being at the fore front of it all. We are very proud to work with such a great group of farmers, and support British farming.’
Julian Allen, Farm Director, said:
‘As you can imagine, we were all delighted with our award. It was a great evening. My only regret is that more of the team were not there to share the experience.’
