Marks & Spencer will sponsor the newly created ‘Young Livestock Producer’ competition at The Scottish Premier Meat Exhibition.

As part of its ongoing commitment to encourage and support young people working in agriculture, Marks & Spencer (‘M&S’) has today announced that it will sponsor the newly created ‘Young Livestock Producer’ competition at this year’s Scottish Premier Meat Exhibition in collaboration with Scotbeef and the Scottish Fat Stock Club.

The new competition will see three new livestock classes created for steers, heifers and sheep, (with three new equivalent deadstock classes) which are open to livestock that meet M&S specification.

The classes are open to any young producer between 18 and 26 years of age, with the live judging taking place at Caledonian Marts in Stirling on Wednesday November 20^th, followed by the deadstock judging taking place on Saturday November 23^rd at Scotbeef Bridge of Allan.

As well as the potential prize money, all participants will be invited to take part in a ‘walk the supply chain’ event with Scotbeef and M&S, so that they can see how each element of the meat supply chain interacts, seeing product from farm to consumer.

Commenting on the announcement, Anna Playfair-Hannay, M&S Agricultural Technologist, said: “We are really pleased to be supporting this new competition. The Scottish meat industry is an important supplier to M&S and through our Farming for the Future programme we are committed to supporting young people who are starting out on a career in agriculture.”

Suzie England, Head of Agricultural Development at Scotbeef, added: “We have been supplying M&S for more than 50 years and are delighted to be partnering with them on this new initiative, that sees us encouraging and supporting young livestock producers. We look forward to working with M&S and with the Scottish National Fatstock Club to make these new classes a success.”