NEW AND Next Generation farmers are invited to join a webinar next week (June 29) when Gregor and Lynne Ramsay will discuss their experiences emigrating from Scotland to start a new life in New Zealand.

The couple emigrated in 2015 – Gregor, a past Biggar Young Farmers Club member, and wife Lynne, a former Crossroads Young Farmers Club member, are now share milking 140 spring calving Jersey cows on a three-year contract, based in Otago, just south of Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island.

The webinar on Monday June 29, which starts at 7.30pm, has been set up by NFU Scotland’s Ayrshire Region; the NEFERTITI project and the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs’ Agri-Affairs group. It will be chaired by SAC beef specialist Robert Ramsay (no relation).

Ayrshire’s representative on NFU Scotland’s Next Generation Group, John Howie said: “We had been planning an on-farm event for younger members this summer, but due to Covid-19 it simply could not happen.

“As more people are using online conferencing, we are embracing this technology to host a catch up with the Ramsay family who emigrated from the West of Scotland to New Zealand five years ago. This also reflects the ethos of the NFUS NextGen group to embrace both change and technology and make the most of new opportunities!”

The Scottish NEFERTITI hub coach Annie McKee, a social researcher at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, said: “Supporting the next generation of new and young farmers is critical to the sustainability of agriculture in Scotland and internationally.

“NEFERTITI, a large-scale EU-funded project, is supporting farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange and innovation-uptake through on-farm demonstration activities. Here in Scotland, the NEFERTITI hub is focussed on the attractiveness of farming as a career to young people, and to encourage new entrants to agriculture.

“We welcome the opportunity to support this webinar which will give many in the next generation of farmers a lot of food for thought.”

To book a place at the Ramsays' webinar, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-ramsays-farming-nz-style-tickets-109779218598