First Milk announced yesterday that Mike Gallacher is to step down as CEO and will be replaced by Shelagh Hancock.

Over the last two years Mr Gallacher led a radical and successful transformation of First Milk, focusing on its core business in cheese and liquid contracts and divesting a number of loss-making subsidiaries. Together with major cost savings and operational improvements this has driven a c£30m improvement in the financial performance of the business and corresponding improvements in returns to members. At the same time, the independent governance review initiated by Mr Gallacher has led to major changes in how the co-op is managed.

Ms Hancock has over 25 years experience in the food and agricultural supply sectors. Most recently she held the roles of Managing Director and Business Development Director at Medina Dairy where she led the development of strategic relationships and business growth with major retailers. Prior to this, she held a number of senior executive positions at the farmer-owned co-operative Milk Link including Milk Business Unit Director and Membership Director.

First Milk Chairman Clive Sharpe said: "Mike's departure is not a surprise as he has been open about his plans."

* Meanwhile, enabling more farmers to benchmark performance and improve cost management across whole farm businesses is behind the appointment of a new Farm Benchmarking Manager at AHDB.

Doreen Anderson, who is based in Scotland, will head up a team responsible for rolling out a new business management programme focusing on benchmarking and peer-to-peer learning across crop and livestock enterprises.

Ms Anderson said: "AHDB has long been involved in benchmarking programmes at sector level but a whole-farm approach will prove more beneficial to the farmers and give a better picture of their farm as a business by looking at their enterprises together.

"This approach is particularly suitable in Scotland, where mixed farming tends to be the norm, so looking at all the key enterprises together will be a real benefit."

Her appointment is part of AHDB's renewed drive to up-skill farmers and growers by providing them with the tools and understanding to monitor performance relative to their peers and improve their business decision-making.

The team will cover the whole UK, with five regional officers working across beef, lamb, potatoes, cereals, oilseeds and later dairy.

Its primary focus is to help farmer and grower groups upload figures onto AHDB's new benchmarking software, Farmbench, interpret the results and discuss ways of reducing costs of production. It will also be training consultants, advisers and vets to use Farmbench with their own discussion groups.