Smithfield Club's Bicentenary Trophy Winner

DR BASIL LOWMAN, MBE, WINS THE 2008 ROYAL SMITHFIELD CLUB BICENTENARY TROPHY

A part time fireman of eighteen and a half years was the last person that you would expect to be the recipient of the prestigious Royal Smithfield Club Bicentenary Trophy, but that is exactly what happened at this year's Meat Industry Dinner held at the Bath and West Showground at the beginning of the month.

Last year's winner, Mr Ian Galloway of Scotbeef, Stirling, quickly explained why - as well as being a part-time fireman, Dr Basil Lowman, MBE, has dedicated thirty years since graduating from the University of Reading, to the improvement of the British Beef Industry.

In February 1970, he was appointed specialist advisor for beef cattle at the East of Scotland College of Agriculture.  Initially, his work involved mostly field trial work with autumn calving beef cows, from which the system of condition scoring was developed.  This robust descriptor of the amount of subcutaneous fat carried by a cow and how this scoring system can be used in the nutritional management of both beef suckler cows and sheep has stood the test of time and is used widely as an essential tool in herd and flock management.

In the mid-1980's, the emphasis of his work moved towards understanding some factors influencing fertility in beef cattle and the significance of compact calving patterns on beef herd economics was defined.  This principle is applied today in many of the more profitable beef suckler herds throughout the UK.  At around the same time, he worked on an improved grassland utilisation for all types of beef cattle and winter feeding of finishing cattle, with particular emphasis on carcass composition and eating quality.

More recently and before his retirement from the SAC in 2004, he developed the principles for Estimating Breeding Values in bulls and their use for improving productivity in suckler herds.

Since his retirement he has worked as an independent consultant to the UK beef industry.  Whilst still presenting papers at high profile animal production conferences throughout the UK, he still has his feet on the ground.  He often carried out on-farm workshops for local beef producer discussion groups, both in Wales and the Scottish Borders.  He told one young beef producer, finishing 120 store cattle at 22 - 24 months of age, that more profit could be made by buying younger cattle and finishing them faster - basic, sound advice, freely given that that young farmer will remember for life.

On accepting the award, Dr Lowman said that it was a great honour to receive the Trophy as an acknowledgement of the importance of the beef industry as a key sector of British agriculture at a time when farming was again being recognised as a crucial part of the UK economy.