Dairy farmer, entrepreneur and NFU board member, Gemma Smale-Rowland will open this year’s Women in Dairy Conference to inspire the audience to take control of their own destiny. She is part of the stellar line up covering the theme of ‘Resilience and Emerging Opportunities’ on 18 September at Sixways Stadium, Worcester.

Connect, share, inspire – these are the aims of the Women in Dairy initiative. The group started as an initiative in 2015 and is driven by the enthusiasm of the volunteer facilitators. In May 2018, building on previous collaborations, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health agreed a two year active sponsorship.

The winners of the prestigious Dairy Industry Woman of the Year Award were announced at the fourth annual Women in Dairy Conference on Wednesday 19 September. This year two winners were chosen to give equal recognition to those working to connect, share and inspire within the Dairy industry at both a national and regional level.

The announcement of the first ever Dairy Industry Woman of the Year Award winner brought delegates flocking to this year’s Women in Dairy Conference (Wednesday 20 September) making it the most successful yet. 

The first ever Dairy Industry Woman of the Year Award has seen an unprecedented number of nominations with Cornish dairy farmer and NFU group chair Bridget Whell, livestock sustainability consultant Jude Capper and 2016 Devon county woman farmer of the year Nicky Lockyer announced as the finalists.

Do you know someone who connects with the dairy industry and the public? Do they inspire you and others? Do they share their experience and knowledge? Then why not nominate them for the brand new Dairy Industry Woman of the Year Award.

Delegates to the inaugural Women in Dairying conference staged at Worcester, on 9 September were reminded they had a vital role to play in promoting the industry and were well positioned to take this up. They connected and shared and were also inspired by other dairy farmers’ experiences.