Ian Rae is a valued auditor who is the regional team leader for Aberdeen and Highlands. Ian covers the following schemes QMS Cattle and Sheep, SQC, Assured Produce, Tesco Nurture, Leaf Marque and Safe Haven.
Born on a typical Aberdeenshire farm with sheep cattle and crops, I used this background knowledge to gain a B.Sc. Agri from Aberdeen before moving into the real world of farm management for 20 years, after a brief encounter with the oil industry working for British Gas laying pipelines from St Fergus south.
I became self employed after having been made redundant in 1997 and immediately started working with SQC, as well as potato inspection work with Seerad. Crop advisory work following gaining my BASIS and FACTS qualifications added to my work load. Eventually, the work as an assessor took over but I now combine assessing with growing strawberries and raspberries for selected outlets around Moray. Over the years I have realised the benefits of producing farm assured produce, as an aid to marketing, a guarantee of safe production methods leading to increased consumer confidence.
LIKES & DISLIKES OF BEING AN AUDITOR: A typical day might mean visiting 3 - 4 farms depending on stock numbers and geography, then another couple of hours in office at night doing reports and trying to make new appointments. The enjoyment for me is that every day is different which keeps the job interesting. I get the chance to meet many interesting farmers, see some great stock and work as part of a team. Another area of job satisfaction comes from going back to a farm and seeing improvements that have been made.
However, there are a few downsides such as dealing with the odd standard that are not very practical and getting grief from farmers about scheme standards, paperwork etc. Also, the amount of time spent on the phone arranging appointments, number of miles driven and logging reports all take up a lot of time. A more embarrassing point is not recognising farmers at shows or marts! My best advice to any assessor is always make the farmers feel that they have been assessed, and that they show an interest in the farm visited.
UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE: Work with the MAFF(Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) team seconded to carry out various duties to help with the foot and mouth disease in Dumfries 2001. Teamwork was heavily called upon during the epidemic. I was part of a seconded 8-10 assessor team working alongside a National Team which included the Army and Vets. Following training and approval by MAFF, I was mainly involved with rodent control while others helped with the slaughter and clean up operations. At times the work felt more like Social work as we were the only visitors going back on farms after they were cleared out, and had to deal with the farmers and the initial aftermath of the slaughter. I'll never forget the effect on grown soldiers as they held lambs to be culled, and the emptiness and quietness of the fields afterwards. This was an unforgettable experience and one hopefully never to be repeated. The disaster was very tough for everyone involved but it certainly helped having the other assessors around to sample the hospitality of Dumfries!
When I'm not driving around the countryside of Aberdeenshire and Highlands carrying out audits I enjoy walking and play the odd round of golf, finally getting time this spring to get a handicap recorded. Saturdays are spent at Pittodrie watching hopefully wonderful football but more likely suffering Aberdeen FC which I've done for years - very therapeutic!! To get away from it all completely I enjoy a week in the sun in Tenerife or save up for a cruise to somewhere interesting.