– In 1987, a top price of 7500gns was paid for a five-month-old imported Angora buck, being purchased by Anne Bell, East Lothian.

– The latest foreign sheep breed to come into the UK was the Rouge de l'Ouest. Several buyers in Scotland paid £985 per head for these sheep which were imported via Southampton.

– BSE disease led to a feed ban in 1988, meaning it was likely to push up the protein feed prices for ruminants.

– In 1989 Glasgow Vet School was under threat, but a petition to save it recorded 4000,000 signatures in six weeks.

– Aberdeen and Northern Marts introduced electronic auction selling using a system seen in Ontario, Canada. It allows potential buyers to bid at home via a computer.

– Cattle exports were banned after the EEC imposed a ban on UK cattle exports to other member states because of the fears of BSE. Scotland's native breeds provided the bulk of the 17,000 cattle exported from the GB the previous year.

– A barley yield record was broken by Gordon Rennie who achieved 251 tonnes from a 50-acre field in Berwickshire.

– Aberdeen Marts moved to a new site at Thainstone, near Inverurie, at a cost of £4m. United Auctions (Eastern) built a £5.5m agricultural centre at Huntingtower, Perth. It had 510 covered pens and at mixed sales could hold 2500 cattle and 12,000 sheep.