Cross-Border consultancy raids help boost turnover

Last year, the turnover of the Scottish Agricultural College rose 9.2 per cent to £55 million and part of this increase, according to SAC director Professor Bill McKelvey, was due to an expansion in their consultancy services into northern England.

In addition to a recent £1.7m contract to deliver training in Cumbria, McKelvey said the college was picking up more and more on farm consultancy work south of the Border. He believed there was still further scope for expansion down as far as the English Midlands but expressed caution in being able to control the service beyond that point.

However, the geographical barrier was no impediment to the SAC Premium Cattle Health Scheme which provides producers with systems designed to keep cattle free from disease. SAC is now picking up members throughout the UK on this scheme with more than half of last year’s new members coming from England, Wales and Ireland.

McKelvey also used the platform of the annual report meeting held in Edinburgh this week to announce the strategic link being established between Edinburgh University and SAC to help bid for lucrative research contracts throughout the world.

SAC is already operating in many overseas countries and has been awarded more than £8m in the past five years in research contracts but McKelvey described the world wide market for research as huge.

Both he and the chairman of the SAC board, Lord Lindsay, spoke enthusiastically on developing links with China. SAC already has a large number of post-graduate Chinese students and they are helping create long-term bonds between SAC and the economic powerhouse.

This week has also been significant in education in the Scottish rural sector, with the Barony College, Dumfries, now deciding to join fellow further education establishments, Oatridge College and Elmwood College, Cupar, in linking up to SAC to create a single Scottish rural educational college.