Case studies: Rural business consultant: Angus Kerr

Angus graduated from Newcastle University in 2002 with a degree in agriculture with animal production science. He now works as a rural business consultant for Laurence Gould Partnership.

After graduating I spent a year at home on the family farm before joining a feed company as an animal nutritionist. I worked with them until May 2008 when I decided I wanted a career change and applied for my current post.

I found that my degree was fairly relevant for this job as it provided me with a good breadth of knowledge in agriculture. My main role at the moment is working on grant applications for farmers so I have to liaise with case officers to discuss applications on behalf of clients. I also manage budgets and make financial projections on projects, as well as helping to prepare farm budgets and reports on an on-going basis.

My role has developed as I have become more confident in my abilities to carry out grant applications without supervision from colleagues. I also have a better understanding of carrying out financial projections and budgets for farmers. I would like to develop a client base myself so I can provide continuous on-farm business advice to clients.

I really enjoy the variety of my job as well as getting out and about to see clients throughout Scotland. The most challenging part is carrying out budgets as I had very little knowledge of this prior to starting my current position - both my last job and my university course were more practical based and orientated around animal nutrition so I hadn’t really covered this aspect.

The best things about working in the agricultural sector are the range of clients that you get to speak to and being able to actively see the benefits to businesses that I can bring from my advice and work.

To anyone who would like to get into this career, I would say a good practical understanding of agriculture is required so that you can speak knowledgeably to farmers. Keeping abreast of relevant changes in legislation and new developments in the industry is also essential so that you can spot new opportunities for clients that they may not have thought about. Being personable and taking an interest in people’s business is vital.