What personal significance does the TDN project hold for you?
Jessica – “This is the most significant project of my career to date. Siobhan and I have been working together for over a decade in promoting positive welfare experiences for the major livestock species. Finding ways to maintain the cow-calf bond is central to positive welfare opportunities in dairy systems. It is a real privilege to team up and collaborate with other engaged actors and advocates of CCC systems, but also welcome people who this is very new for, who have lots of questions, and perhaps challenges and needs this project can help support. I have worked on many farmer-led projects and I am very proud to be applying this approach to learn from the transformational systems farmers are developing to apply CCC in practice.”
In what ways do you believe TDN will drive positive change?
Jessica – “Driving positive change for me is a grass roots process. Therefore, first and foremost, we aim to create a space for dairy farmers and other actors to come and share experiences, learn from each other and support each other in exploring CCC practice. I believe networks of farmers and peer to peer communities of practice is one of the most powerful driving forces of change. At a wider level we are also mobilizing a European Network, which we call our EKIN (European Knowledge and Innovation Network), to share outcomes from the national activities with farmers – to engage the industry ecosystem around dairy farmers, to consider what part they play to support a transformation process. We are really encouraged that after our first press release we have had more and more actors globally getting in touch and wanting to join our network. A real success for us in driving positive change would be to leave the legacy that this network continues beyond the life of the funded project, continuing to support the upscaling of CCC systems.”
As the coordinator of this significant project, what do you see as the primary challenges to achieving its success?
Jessica – “We are a big, passionate consortium, who care very deeply about the dairy sector and the role of CCC systems within it. We all have strong opinions, and do not always agree, and in which case we need to take a step back, and compromise. Swift democratic processes around decision making, and facilitation can really not be underestimated here! Some of us have been working independently in this area for some time. Coming together and learning how to work together takes a real investment of time and energy at the beginning, but this collaborative process is crucial to the power and therefore success of any consortium like us. We super-charge our impact by working together – this is where the real magic starts to happen…”
What specific outcomes do you hope to achieve by the conclusion of the TDN project?
Jessica – “I am exciting to see what our National Innovation Hubs (NIPs) of farmers and other actors decide to trial in Living Labs – to address their own challenges, gaps or questions about CCC practice. This will add value to our network of participants and provide the sector with inspiration and new knowledge. I am also looking forward to welcoming other actors from across the industry ecosystem to come and learn from what our NIPs are doing, and finding out how our network can best support the sector, in Europe but also other parts of the world, going forward.”
Jessica Stokes, co-coordinator of the project
