Former SRUC agriculture student scoops £1000 prize

_{Jack Young was announced as the AgriScot Business Skills Award winner by Cabinet Secretary Mairi Gougeon}

Former SRUC student Jack Young was crowned winner of the Business Skills Award at the annual AgriScot Farm Business of the Year awards event.

Jack, who is from Carluke in Lanarkshire and studied agriculture at both SRUC Barony and Oatridge, won £1000.

After graduating with an HND in Agriculture, Jack spent some time travelling in New Zealand before returning home to work on the family farm full time.

Jack, who was one of three finalists from SRUC - alongside fourth year BSc (Hons) Agriculture students Rhona Campbell Crawford from the Edinburgh campus and Jennifer Davidson from the Aberdeen campus - said he was “surprised and delighted” to win the award.

Sponsored by NFU Mutual and supported by SRUC, the competition aims to assess general business skills and awareness of topical agricultural issues.

The final stage of the competition took place at AgriScot on Wednesday with the finalists asked to evaluate a new product, create a presentation based on their assessment and showcase their ideas to a judging panel.

They were also asked a range of questions on business skills and topical agricultural issues and were assessed on how they are developing their CVs.

George Baikie, Head of SRUC Farms and part of the judging panel alongside AgriScot Director Annabel Hamilton and Ian Hope of Galbraiths, said: “This year we were faced with a real challenge with three excellent candidates who presented really well, but Jack just did that wee bit extra in terms of his preparation for the meeting and it was really good.”

Posted by SRUC on 18/11/2022