THE DEADLINE to register for one of the hottest Young Farmers’ events of the year – the national agri affairs conference – is this weekend.

Interested members are encouraged to sign up for the two-day event, to take place in Dundee on the weekend of the 15-17 November, by 9pm on Sunday, November 3.

This year’s theme will be ‘Sustainability for Future Farming’ at a time when, more than ever, young farmers are being encouraged to equip themselves with the right tools to safeguard their businesses for the future.

The two-day conference will take place at Double Tree Hilton in Dundee where attendees can look forward to evening meals featuring a host of inspiring speakers, breakout sessions and a number of local farm visits. The main sponsors for the event are Massey Ferguson, SRUC and RBS and the main speaker for the conference dinner is Robert Chapman, of Farmlay, Strichen, with other speakers Craig Davidson, of SRUC, and John Sleigh.

The breakout sessions will involve a soil health and sustainability workshop led by SRUC; a communications session led by Quality Meat Scotland on becoming ‘Lambassadors’; a benchmarking discussion led by Jim Baird; and a finance session by sponsor the Royal Bank of Scotland. The final Sunday morning will feature the ever-popular panel session, which notoriously welcomes esteemed panellists to encourage attendees to think outside the box.

Chair of the agri affairs committee Andrew McGregor encouraged people to sign up before it’s too late: “In the turbulent times our country is going through it is important that, as young people we are taking the opportunities to get to events like the Agri Affairs conference. We need to be informing ourselves as best we can so that we are as flexible and capable as possible to deal with whatever the outcome of the current uncertainty is,” he urged. “The world population will be over 10 billion by 2050, at our conference we will be learning how we are part of the solution of how to sustainably and successfully feed these billions.”

Bookings can be made using the following link http://shop.sayfc.org/product/agri-rural-affairs-conference