Robert Craig announced as new NFU Cumbria County Chairman

Friday 22 January 2010

ROBERT Craig of Cairn Head Farm in Armathwaite, Carlisle is the NFU’s new Cumbrian County Chairman.

Mr Craig, who will serve a period of two years in office, is a dairy farmer who milks 370 spring calving New Zealand black and white cows. A family man, Mr Craig is married to Jackie and the couple have four children together – Ellie (10), Lauren (8), Georgina (7), and Jack (5).

The Craigs have two farms which together encompass 440 acres of land, 330 acres of which they own themselves. The original home farm was passed down to Robert by his father and up until the last three years, the borders had not changed an awful lot.

Aspirations of pitching for a highly sort after Nuffield Scholarship have been put on hold for two years by Robert who decided representing the forward thinking farming county of Cumbria at NFU level was an honour he could not refuse. He succeeds Russell Bowman of Castlerigg Farm in Armathwaite, who is incidentally his cousin.

“Up until now I’d never contemplated getting involved with the NFU at any level,” said Mr Craig.

“When Russell became Cumbrian County Chairman I could not work out why he wanted to do the job. For that reason, Russell invited me to the NFU’s annual Conference and to the NFU’s offices in Brussels so that I could see for myself the power the NFU has and what it is capable of achieving. I have to admit to having my eyes opened.

“If you are good at running a business there should be no reason why you cannot transfer those skills to an NFU job.

“The NFU has sharper teeth than I appreciated and my aim to use its considerable power to help farmers in Cumbria.”

Mr Craig will officially take over from Russell Bowman at the NFU Conference 2010 which takes place at the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham on Tuesday 23 February and Wednesday 24 February.