Ian McCluggageIan McCluggage is married with five children. The son of a Co. Antrim dairy farmer, and growing up and working on the farm, he gained a practical knowledge and understanding of milking cows and the many challenges facing dairy farming.

In 1984 Ian commenced work with the Department of Agriculture Northern Ireland (DANI) initially as a general adviser, then dairy specialist and progressing to senior business consultant. He gained additional experience and viewed life from the commercial world's perspective, spending several years in the private sector before returning to DARD in 1998.

In 1999 he became head of advisory / development work in the beef and sheep sector before taking up his current role in 2000 as Head of Dairying & Pigs Development Branch at the Greenmount Campus of the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE)Greenmount Campus, CAFRE.

Increasingly environmental issues need to be addressed on dairy farms and Ian has responsibility for all of CAFRE's environmental policy. At Greenmount Campus he is currently involved in evaluating the effectiveness of a constructed wetland for handling dirty water from a 200 cow dairy unit.

Consultancy/advisory work areas

Key areas of work at Greenmount which Ian is involved with include:

. farm business development,

. the adoption of new technology to improve competitiveness.This includes benchmarking, dairy production systems, grass and business challenge, dairy cow nutrition, and milk compositional quality.


Membership of Professional Associations

1982 - Present. Member Northern Ireland Institute of Agricultural Science
1983 - Present. Member of UK Farm Management Lecturers
1982 - Present. Member Ulster Grassland Society

Technical publications

Ian has authored more than 80 technical publications.

Education

. 1982. BAgr (Hons). The Queen's University Belfast
. 1983. MAgr (Farm Business Economics). The Queen's University Belfast

 

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