DairyCo

New DairyCo head of knowledge transfer

Published 8 July 11

Dr Elizabeth Berry has been appointed head of knowledge transfer for DairyCo by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.

As head of knowledge transfer (KT) Dr Berry will be responsible for managing the team of 17 extension officers based around GB and for developing the strategic direction of KT at DairyCo. 

Dr Berry says: "I'm really looking forward to working with the extension team. They're a great bunch with a huge range of skills. I want to make sure we continue to bring together the work we're doing in other departments such as R&D and market intelligence and use it to develop the technical side of the work the team does.  With the recent announcement of the research partnerships the role of the extension team is now more important than ever to ensure the new information we have gets directly to our levy payers." 

Dr Duncan Pullar, DairyCo's director says: "I am delighted that Elizabeth has accepted this post and look forward to working with her as we develop the DairyCo KT service.  The extension team has quickly made a great contribution to the industry and will continue to develop.  Elizabeth has been a very valuable member of the R&D team and can now bring her enthusiasm and knowledge to bear on our KT work. It's an exciting time in the dairy industry and for DairyCo extension work and Elizabeth is looking forward to the challenge."

Dr Berry is a qualified vet and spent 12 years working in mixed practice before moving to Genus where she managed a team of 10 field staff.  Dr Berry also has a PhD in bovine mastitis and managed the applied research group at the Institute for Animal Health at Compton before joining DairyCo as an R&D manager in 2009.

Ends

Date 8 July 2011

For further information:

N:         Helen Fina        
T:         02476 478696
E:         helen.fina@dairyco.ahdb.org.uk
W:        www.dairyco.org.uk

DairyCo's aim is to promote world class knowledge to British dairy farmers so they can profit from a sustainable future.

To achieve this DairyCo aims to:

• Ensure farmers have access to world class information needed to improve competitiveness, GHG reduction and productivity
• Ensure farmers have access to direct and indirect support to help them improve their profitability through better business management
• Ensure that dairy farming is reducing its impact on the environment
• Ensure farmers understand the benefits of breeding and use the related tool

DairyCo is funded entirely by milk producers, via a statutory levy on all milk sold off-farm, at the rate of 0.06p per litre.  This provides an annual income of around £6.5m.

DairyCo is a division of the statutory levy board, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).