What a pleasure to have had a spell of dry settled weather and finally ‎see some progress with field work.

Despite knowing weeks ago I was due to write this article, clearly nothing has changed from the ‎approach that I took throughout most of my student days, last minute as ever!

Here I am trying to find time to write it while trying to also get fertiliser spread, winter ploughing finished and maybe even think about sowing some spring oats.

I will try to resist the temptation to have a moan at the continued delay in subsidy payments (still not a penny in our account anyway!) but I would say with an election looming we, as an industry, should be making a much bigger deal about the massive amount of public money that has so far been 'wasted' on what is ultimately a disaster of a computer system.

This may get the public's attention far more than continuing to plead poverty.

‎On top of this, the continued misery around the price of pretty much everything we produce makes it hard to find any optimism within our industry at the moment. Times like these just serve as a reminder that we must try to put ourselves in a position whereby we are ready to grasp any opportunities that arise.

From my own (limited) experience the best bit of advice I can give to any youngster in our industry is to get away from home!

See other areas, meet new people and see for yourself that there are so many different ways to do the same job.

And this doesn't necessarily mean jumping on the next flight to Australia to sit on a combine for two months, the opportunities within the UK are endless.

Being part of the great organisation that is Young Farmers also makes moving away so much easier as its gives you an immediate group of like-minded people, no matter where in the UK you end up.

My career goal had always been to aim for a farm manager's position, but fresh out of SAC, I decided to head down to Shropshire to take on the role of assistant manager at Heal Farms, just outside Shrewsbury, to gain valuable experience.

I started work on Monday morning and by Monday evening I was along at my first Shawbury YFC meeting, largely thanks to one of our summer workers encouraging me along. So there I was, only one day into a new life and already through Young Farmers I had a bunch of new mates that made settling in away from home so much easier.

The Shawbury crew are now friend's for life, we still keep in touch. I certainly received numerous texts recently when Scotland's defeat over France handed England the Six Nations!

The movement in England is similar to our organisation in Scotland. They do, however, seem more proactive at attracting non-farmers into the clubs and, therefore, have much larger club/district membership - Shropshire county dances often host more than 500 people.

In my view this was largely down to their differing style of leadership within the club. They placed a large importance on keeping every member involved in decisions rather than a committee which can, in some circumstances, begin to turn into a bit of a clique.

Instead, Shawbury had a top table of chairman, secretary and treasurer, responsible for making day-to-day decisions, then on the first Monday of every month an open business meeting is held where members get the chance to have their say. To me, this made everyone in the club feel more involved.

I also couldn't have landed myself a more ideal first job. The knowledge and experience I gained during my time at Heal Farms will be invaluable. This is why I would recommend any youngster in farming to get away from the bubble that is home life. In these tough times coming back home with new skills, knowledge, ideas and perhaps even a different outlook on the whole job could be a huge asset to any business.

The size and scale of some of the farms down south is certainly impressive and shows what's possible, but it hasn't always been like that. It all goes back to my previous point about being putting yourself in a position to take advantage of potential opportunities, and having the guts to go for it!

The farm was owned and run by Tony Heal, who certainly demonstrated what's possible with hard work and being willing to take a risk. Tony came home from university to a farm no bigger than your average Scottish family farm.

He now grows 1600 acres of processing potatoes along with 5000 acres of cereals and has 200,000 laying chickens producing 100m eggs per year.

One of the biggest challenges in such a big outfit is keeping control of a large workforce. Getting the most from both the machinery and the people operating it is a constant battle, as efficiency is key when working on such a scale.

The better conditions down there also means that everything is done at a faster pace. Forward planning became even more important and it was tough to get my head around this, coming from Scotland, where I was always used to the planting squad setting off to a field for the day.

However with nine separators in Shropshire it wasn't unusual to get a phone call by 'piece time' wondering where the next field was!

Man management, forward planning, the constant battle to minimise downtime while keeping staff motivated and morale up, even after weeks of long hours, were probably the key skills I developed during my year in Shropshire.

Moving away heightens the need to forge your own reputation and gain your own respect not live off the reputation and respect of your family. On top of this, you have the added life skills gained by living alone away from home - perhaps the biggest shock to the system!

Looking back, I would definitely do it all again and I know the experience I have gained has allowed me, at 23, to now be a farm manager on a 700ha arable unit back up in Scotland

My one piece of advice would be to take the risk, try somewhere new and take advantage the Young Farmers organisation.

You never know what opportunity it could lead to.