GOING OVER THE EDGE Holstein UK chairman John Edge leaves
offi ce this October having spent 14 years on the board. Chrissie Long gets his take on the future for himself and Holstein UK
his autumn marks the end of an era for Holstein UK chairman and acting chief executive John Edge as he steps down from his duties having dedicated 14 and a half years to the organisation as board member for the North Western region. A well respected breeder himself, being the head of the family which runs the noted Wimboldsley herd at home in Cheshire, John has always sought to drive Holstein UK forward for the benefi t of the membership.
T
“Throughout my whole life and time with Holstein UK, I have always seen the value in investing well in staff and have always tried to engage with them all. I will be leaving the Holstein team with many fond memories, but having had to make some tough decisions along the way.
“Having been responsible for 120 staff throughout Holstein UK and its subsidiaries Cattle Information Services (CIS) and Centre for Dairy Information (CDI), I’ve been aware of the excellent team of people working to further the interests of the breed and the wider dairy industry. I don’t believe we could fi nd a more committed and driven team of people if we tried.” And that includes all the fi eld staff, the 30 based at Rickmansworth and the 15 at CIS’ headquarters at Telford, he adds. In business, John is a big believer in size isn’t everything, but as he points out, if you’re not growing then your competition soon will be. So its testament to the staff that Holstein UK is capable of completing 220,000 cattle registrations across a number of breeds, it takes care of 140,000 classifi cation inspections in various breeds and processes 4m milk samples for dairy farmers across the UK, every year.
“Behind this success in milk testing is a world class facility at Speir House, Telford. It is generally recognised that we now have 50% of the milk recording business and with our increasing health and pregnancy testing services, CIS is growing rapidly under the expert guidance of the executive director Sue Cope and fully justifi es our investment of more than £2m in the business,” explains John.
On top of this CDI is also expanding its services to breed societies and continues to provide services to the two milk recording partners CIS and United Dairy Farmers, he says. “Key to the success of both CDI and CIS is the investment which has been made in the central database to hold pedigree and milk recording data in one place. This provides signifi cant benefi ts to Holstein UK members
ABOVE Outgoing chairman John Edge strongly believes Holstein UK has never been in a stronger position with the appointment of new staff, a new management structure and some exciting new products on offer for its members.
22 THE JOURNAL OCTOBER 2014
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