FARMERS in the Isle of Man have the chance to share ideas and expertise with farmers from around the United Kingdom in a series of upcoming lectures.

The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture is running two meetings, each with three guest speakers, on November 2 and November 9.

Visiting speakers will discuss beef and sheep farming and milk production and they will also share their personal farming challenges and discuss how they have come up with practical and innovative solutions to problems faced.

Particular emphasis will be placed on actions which can be controlled by farmers in the Island rather than on other factors – such as world prices for fertiliser or the volatility of market prices for farm produce – which they cannot control.

Speaking at the first meeting will be Robert Neil who is a suckler cow farmer from the Scottish borders.

Robert, who finishes beef cattle and grows cereal, is a Farmers' Weekly columnist and a past winner of its Beef Farmer of the Year award.

He will be joined by Crosby Cleland from Northern Ireland who is noted as one of the most forward thinking and business minded sheep farmers of his generation.

The final speaker will be Dr Steven Johnson from the Department of Agriculture in Northern Ireland who is a sheep specialist and works to promote efficient production in practical ways.

There will also be three guest speakers at the second meeting which will be held on November 9.

Gwydion Jones, a dairy farmer from north Wales will explain why he has changed from year round calving to block calving and how he gets as much milk from grass as possible from his 120 cow herd.

He will be followed by Hugh McClymont who is a farm manager at Scottish Agricultural College's Crichton Royal Farm.

Hugh will discuss how two management regimes applied to the Langhill herd are performing including how the high forage group achieve annual yields of 8,000 litres supplemented by only one tonne of concentrates.

The final speaker will be Stewart Watson, a dairy focus farmer from Northern Ireland, who farms 130 acres in County Tyrone and who has managed to increase milk output, decrease mastitis and reduce the cost of feed and forage - all whilst increasing milk yield. 

Both meetings will start at 7.30pm at the Glen Helen Hotel. They are free to attend and refreshments will be served.