By Rosie Breakwell • Published on 2nd October, 2025
On the eve of the Dairy Show, the ever-popular Dairy Industry Dinner returned, providing an opportunity for key members of the Dairy Industry to come together in celebration of the industry, and to see who was awarded with the all-important Dairy Industry Award.
Over 300 key members of the dairy industry attended the ever-popular event on Tuesday 30th September which was held in the Wessex Pavilion at the Bath & West Showground.
The Dairy Industry Dinner 2025 welcomed Yellow Wellies as the Charity of the Year. Yellow Wellies focus is on preparing the next generation of farmers to be responsible, confident and safe farmers of the future. Their ambition is clear – to find a way to stop farmers having life changing accidents and dying at work.
They are funding training at colleges throughout the UK to highlight the risks involved in farming and offer practical solutions to addressing these risks. They are also researching the attitudes to farm safety to discover how to challenge and change this risk-taking behaviour. And they are sharing the work and advice of their farm safety partners.
In her keynote speech, Sarah Dyke MP highlighted the reductions and cancellations of environmental schemes that are creating significant uncertainty for farmers, and encouraged everyone to contact their MPs to feed back concerns about the future of farming. She shared her pride in now serving as the Liberal Democrats’ spokesperson for Rural Affairs, and acknowledged the many pressures farmers face – from inheritance tax and the loss of environmental schemes to the wider challenges of climate change and ongoing uncertainty.
This year the Dairy Industry Award was awarded to Michael Masters, Head of Milk Supplies & Operations at Barbers Cheesemaker. David Cotton said “The award this year goes to an individual who has spent a lifetime involved in dairy farming, coming from a small family farm. I have known Michael for most of my farming life from when he used to supplement his income with some milk recording, through to public speaking at Young Farmers.
From setting up the first Dairy Producer Organisation and travelling all over the country supporting dairy farmers, to giving evidence at parliamentary enquiries and keeping all their farmer associates regularly updated with market reports having built up an exceptional network of colleagues around the world to be able to explain the intricacies of the dairy market in simple form. A huge well done to Michael, this award is very well deserved.”
Receiving the award, Michael said “I am so lucky to have received this award and absolutely astonished to be the recipient. This sort of thing usual happens to others and not to me – I had no idea!
I was a farmer for 20 years before beginning as a representative for farming with Barbers cheese. I attended the very first Dairy Industry Dinner as a farmer more than 25 years ago and I remember thinking this is an event that I need to attend every year, and I have been a part of it ever since! A huge thank you for the award, I feel extremely honoured to have received it.”
Photographs by Andrew Gorman