After the death of his father, William MacConnachie looked around High Dalrioch holding, just outside Campbelltown, and surveyed what had been left to him in succession.
Alternative versions of the foot-and-mouth saga were proliferating throughout the media, this week 10 years ago, with numerous reports alleging that, far from being over, the outbreak had spread way beyond its official boundaries.
A QUARTER of a century ago, in May 1986, the disaster at Russia's Chernobyl Nuclear Plant was dominating the headlines and, as Glenluce farmer's wife Elizabeth McDowall remembers it, the sky over Scotland had a distinctly ominous hue.
COMPULSORY ELECTRONIC tagging for sheep could “kill or cure” the Scottish sheep industry – and it was anticipated to be coming sooner than many would expect, this week 10 years ago.
UK BEEF farmers spent between 18 and 30 months producing beasts of the highest quality, only for their meat to be ruined by four or five days of careless processing, it was claimed this week 10 years ago.
PRIME MINISTER, Tony Blair, went halfway towards committing the government to a U-turn on offering more aid to hard-pressed farmers, this week in 2000, and for good measure, threw in a further £100m per year concession by dumping a proposed pesticides tax.
THREE PEOPLE were arrested following noisy demonstrations by animal welfarists and vegetarians outside Earls Court during the week’s Royal Smithfield Show, 25 years ago.
MINISTER OF Agriculture Michael Jopling fought a successful rearguard action against treasury demands for a cut of some £50m in agricultural grants, this week 25 years ago.
