2015-02-11 |
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Allan Bowie Elected 61st President of NFU Scotland
Fife farmer Allan Bowie has been elected the 61st President of NFU Scotland. Mr Bowie takes over one of the top jobs in Scottish agriculture from Borders farmer Nigel Miller, who steps down having served for four years.
In the vote, taken at the Union’s AGM in St Andrews on Tuesday 10th Febraury, Allan Bowie secured the Presidential spot, against fellow contestants Andrew Moir and Rob Livesey.
Allan Bowie
Mr Livesey, from the Borders, and Dumfriesshire farmer Andrew McCornick were successfully elected as Vice Presidents of the Union. The unsuccessful Vice Presidential candidates were Andrew Moir from Kincardineshire; Kelvin Pate from Lothian & Borders and John Smith from Kintyre.
After the election, NFU Scotland’s new
President Allan Bowie commented:
“I
am very pleased to be elected into the post of President. It will
be a huge task to follow Nigel
Miller, but also a huge privilege.
I appreciate all the support from the council and members, and
going forward it is certainly going to remain challenging.
“I look forward to representing members on all sectors and scales. In his final address to council, Nigel eluded to the unfinished business that we have around CAP implementation, land and tenancy reform and new powers for Scotland. The work that Nigel has so ably started, means that I, and the new Vice Presidents, will need to hit the ground running.
“I want to thank sincerely my fellow candidates for their company and the last few weeks of hustings have been a whirlwind. It was a privilege and pleasure to tour the country with them, speaking to members across all our regions. This is one aspect that we’ve always got to concentrate on – continuing to listen and speak to members.
“The challenges won’t go away, and, on behalf of the new Presidential team, I promise we will do all within our power to get the best deal possible for Scottish agriculture in all our commodities and across every region of the country.”
Allan Bowie
Allan is married with two sons and a daughter.
He farms in North East Fife and Clackmannanshire with Christine
and son Callum, majoring on growing cereals. The area farmed extends
to about 850 acres on contract farming agreements. In addition,
the business grazes a number of suckled calves. He was chairman
of the North East Fife branch and served two years as chairman
for East Central region. Allan has been Vice
President since February 2009.
Rob Livesey
Rob is married with
two sons. He farms Firth Farm near Lilliesleaf in the Scottish
Borders with 1,100 mules ewes, 80 Salers cows and 125 acres of
cereals. The Firth is a tenanted farm of 600 acres and a further
200 acres is rented nearby. Rob has been a Vice President for the
last two years, and was Livestock
Committee Chairman for four years before that. He is also a past President of the Selkirk branch.
Prior to taking the tenancy of the Firth, Rob managed a large estate
in south Ayrshire for seven years after leaving the family farm
at Bonchester Bridge.
Andrew McCornick
Andrew, who is married with three sons and a daughter, was born
and brought up on a dairy farm in Wigtown. Andrew and wife Janice
farm their 230+ ha unit with 160 suckler cows and 600 breeding
ewes with a small herd of pedigree Charolais cattle. For as long
as Andrew can remember, he has been a member of the Union, and
got more involved when the consultation for Nithsdale NVZ came
out. From there he went onto become vice chairman of the Dumfries
branch, and then onto his current role of Regional Board Chairman
for Dumfries and Galloway. He also sits on the LFASS committee.
