Scottish young farmers are being invited to pitch innovative ideas to help the dairy sector as part of a new Dragon’s Den-style competition.
The Digital Dairy Chain, led by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), wants to find the newest ideas that can combat some of the sector's biggest challenges.
The panel will be looking for projects that look at topics such as animal welfare, energy consumption, the use of digital technology and even animal nutrition.
Ideas can be big or small, as researchers from across the spectrum will be teamed up with the ideas that suit their area of expertise in order to bring it to life.
Pauline Murray, Digital Dairy Chain and University of Strathclyde project lead, said: “It is crucial that through the Digital Dairy Chain project we engage with young farmers across the country.
"They will be the future workforce for the industry, we want them to be empowered to come forward and pitch their ideas and shape the future of farming.”
The Digital Dairy Chain project has so far awarded 35 projects from across the region with £320,000 in total to tackle farming's challenges.
These include educating young people on where their milk comes from, to reducing carbon emissions using novel technologies and finding innovative solutions to transporting milk to a vending machine at the perfect temperature.
In the new round, any pitches could be taken forward by the Digital Dairy Chain team and developed into a real research project with a grant of up to £10,000.
The launch event will take place in the Social Hub, Glasgow, on 25 September.
The ideas will then be pitched at the Scottish Association of Young Farmer’s Club Agriculture conference in November in front of a panel of industry experts and business leaders.
Only farmers aged between 16-30 years old can apply.
