AN agricultural consultant with more than 30 years’ experience of advising farmers has been recognised for his work to improve the sustainability of land use.
Seamus Donnelly was awarded the Elrick Prize – set up in memory of senior consultant Gavin Elrick following his untimely death in November 2020 – on his retirement from SAC Consulting, part of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC).
Described as “a big character”, Seamus was an important part of the Wigtownshire agricultural industry and is well known across Dumfries and Galloway.
Throughout his 34 working years, he shared his knowledge and provided support to ensure farmers were able to adapt to the many changes taking place in the agricultural industry.
He was a subsidy expert and was keen that farmers used their subsidy money to create sustainable businesses, gathering dairy benchmarking information from his milk manager clients and working with monitor farms to encourage farmers to look at the technical performance of their beef and sheep farms.
With a background as a soil scientist, he also became a drainage guru, travelling all over Scotland to deliver talks and demonstrations.
He was nominated for the award by regional development manager Raymond Crerar for his environmental work and in particular his involvement in the Seagreen project.
Raymond said: “Seamus continually went above and beyond to deliver this project and achieve good outcomes for the client and effected landowners.”
Responding, Seamus said: “It is a great privilege to have been awarded this prize which honours a colleague who always went the extra mile to promote good soil care.
“I feel very humbled to receive this as I step away from what has been a truly memorable and rewarding career with SRUC.”
