Kate Rowell
Session 9 – Putting Meat on to Agritourism Menus
Chair, Quality Meat Scotland
Kate Rowell took up the post of chair of Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) in October 2018. A fifth-generation farmer, she runs a hill and upland farm near Peebles in the Scottish Borders with her husband Ed.
A qualified vet, Mrs Rowell worked in a mixed practice in the North of England for eight years before she returned home to take over the reins of the family business. The Rowells run 75 suckler cows and around 800 sheep on the 750-hectare Hundleshope farm on the Haystoun Estate, where the family have been tenants for 150 years.
As well as being a past QMS monitor farmer, Kate has been a member of the QMS board since 2015. She completed the Scottish Enterprise Rural Leaders programme in 2016 and was chosen as an Emerging Leader by the Oxford Farming Conference in 2018.
Kate is a past President of Peeblesshire Agricultural Society, a member of NFU Scotland, life member of RHASS and member of NSA. She frequently volunteers with the Royal Highland Education Trust and also runs a Girl Guide unit in Peebles. She also currently sits on the UK government Trade and Agriculture Commission.