Six winners of Nuffield Scholarships for 2016 have been announced. Each wins a travel bursary of €14,000.

They will first undertake six weeks of training abroad and will then travel to research their topics. They will present their final reports to the Nuffield Farming Scholarship and other forums.

The winners

Tom Dinneen, Mallow, Co Cork, a dairy farmer with a cheese business; Peter Farrell, Kilmessan, Co Meath, a dairy farmer; Ailbhe Gerrard, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, who runs a mixed farm and has an artisan food business; Ray Hunt, Cashel, Co Tipperary, a dairy farmer and area manager for Munster AI; John Joyce, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, a mixed farmer and agri contractor; and Roberta McDonald, Ballycumber, Co Offaly, farm profitability programme manager with Aurivo Co-op.

The new scholars will be introduced at the Nuffield Ireland annual conference ion the Castleknock Hotel on Friday, 16 October.

Paul Mooney