Following the amalgamation of a number of Scotland’s rural colleges, SRUC was established two years ago.
Professor Geoff Simm is vice-principal with responsibility for research. He is a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies and a Fellow of the Society of Biology. He was awarded an SAC personal professorship in animal breeding in 1999.
David Andrews caught up with him to ask about his work.
Q How many people are involved in research at SRUC?
A We have 320 staff in the research division, which is the most there has been in the past couple of decades.
Alongside them we have 85 postgraduate research students, which is also a record.
Q What topics does SRUC research cover?
A We have four groups.
* One looks at animal and veterinary sciences, and that covers genetics, animal welfare, diseases, nutrition and avian sciences.
This is the largest of the four groups.
* The second group covers crops and soil systems; looking at the pathology and diseases of crops, especially potatoes and barley.
This is also the International Year of the Soil, so there is a lot of focus on soils around the world.
We are looking not only at their ability to produce food but also their ability to store carbon and provide other environmental ‘services’.
We are fortunate at SRUC that we have retained a strong group of soil scientists. They are very active both in contribution to productivity and in environmental management.
They are also involved in the agronomy of the crops, carrying out practical field trials on management and crop varieties.
* The third research group deals with land economy, environment and society.
It covers agricultural economics and the provision of evidence for developing new policies.
This group also works on issues such as providing models for the implementation of the CAP.
They also work with rural communities on issues such as broadband provision.
While there is a lot of attention given to urban poverty, there are also areas of rural poverty which slip under the radar.
The ‘postcode’ type approach often used with urban poverty does not easily identify people living in poverty in country areas.
* The final group of research workers come under the heading of future farming systems, and they bring together a lot of our research to farm-scale trials.
We can carry out work in laboratories, but to make this research applicable in practice it has to be translated into realistic benefits.
This work underlines the importance of our experimental farms, where we have the best set in the UK. These include the dairy unit at the Crichton in Dumfries; the beef, sheep, and pig centres at the Bush outside Edinburgh; and the hill farm at Crianlarich.
Q So you try to get the rewards from basic research turned into practical applications?
A Yes. We have open days on those farms, plus we have crop trials on commercial farms.
There are a lot of farmer links with our crop clinic which forecasts disease risks.
Our animal science group produces information on livestock breeding data to produce Estimated Breeding Values which help guide buyers to the top bulls and rams.
We provide all the results for the UK dairy herd, including the Profitable Lifetime Index for bulls and cows.
Q Is it a good time to be in research?
A It has never been better.
I have been in research for 32 years.
When I was studying, it was the beginning of the research cuts in the UK which have been a fairly constant feature in that time.
Scotland has been lucky, with the Scottish Government providing continuity in funding for research which has not been present in other parts of UK.
In the past five years we have seen a real recognition of the massive challenges facing agriculture.
The world population is expected to grow from seven billion people today up to nine billion by mid-century.
We need to grow more food and waste less, especially since a number of countries are emerging from poverty and are looking at western diets with higher contributions from animal products.
That creates another challenge, as many animals rely on crops grown on land.
With the climate changing, we are also seeing some large areas of land globally becoming less productive.
We really have to find smarter ways to produce more with less damage to the environment.
Q How does Scotland match up with other countries in quality of research carried out?
A Very often Scottish animal and plant research is ranked number one or two in the world.
The Research Excellence Framework is an exercise that evaluates research in the UK prior to making funding decisions.
We (at SRUC) have never been included before, but we made a joint submission along with Edinburgh University in agriculture, food and veterinary science and we were ranked top in UK in the volume of high quality research carried out.
Q You also collaborate with research workers in other parts of the world, don’t you?
A At the moment we are working with 55 countries around the world.
We are also involved with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where the aim is to alleviate poverty in poorer parts of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa. It is very fulfilling work.
Q During your time in research you will have seen vast changes in the work.
A Twenty-five to 30 years ago there was a strong belief that molecular genetics was going to revolutionise animal and plant breeding.
It is beginning to do so now, but it has taken longer than many expected, largely because many of the aspects of plants and animals that we are interested in are controlled by hundreds of genes rather than a single gene.
So there is usually no silver bullet.
What is happening now is that we have far better tools for identifying plants and animals that have sets of genes that make them more productive, healthy etc.
Q What attracted you to research?
A I studied agriculture at Bangor University, and in my final year did a research project.
I was always keen on animals, having come from a remote rural part of north England.
I got a real kick out of doing the research and decided there and then to look for somewhere I could do a PhD in animal research.
This brought me to the Animal Breeding Research Organisation (now part of the Roslin Institute) in Edinburgh.
I did my PhD on the genetic improvement of Hereford beef cattle.
I have enjoyed the work ever since.
It is a lesson to me that students should be exposed to research.
Whether that leads to a career or just knowing how research works is incidental.