IN A STORMY week, there's nothing like taking some positives from it.

While many experienced the ferocity of Storm Arwen, which devastated many areas of woodland, tore off shed roofs and caused a general disruption, it was heartening to see so many people make the effort to attend two big winter shows last weekend and into the beginning of this week.

LiveScot came the day after the big storm, but still managed a fairly full ringside to see some cracking animals on display. For many, the highlight was an absolute brammer of a Charolais cross bullock from Teen and Craig Malone – the most telling comment being that it would have been a star in the glass box that used to be the capital palace for the Royal Smithfield Show champion at Earls Court.

That steer, Silver Lining, was a credit to its breeder – Duncan Semple, from Kintyre – and its exhibitors, the young Malone couple. It must have been a great tonic for both of those teams: Duncan having been the victim of an actual 'mugging' when his quad bike was stolen by aggressive thugs; and the Malones who had Teen down with Covid-19 for a few days. The power of showing indeed!

It was also testament to the hard work and perseverance of the Malones who only have a short-term tenancy to their name. Surely, if talent and hard work has anything to do with it, a more secure fate should be the future for these two?

Hats off, too, to the Scottish National Fatstock Club for some fresh thinking for their show at Lanark – the addition of calf classes and young farmer participation events on the evening prior to the main show were a big hit. That looks like something that can be built on and probably only a severe lack of accommodation in the area would stand against it being a proper two-day show.

That main lobby at Lanark – as it is also at Thainstone – is a great meeting point for farmers and one of the stand out parts of entering LiveScot was to see the biggest show of sticks and crooks you'll see this side of the Pennines.

Hats off to these artists who can turn the horns from some ugly sheep into the most beautiful of artifacts.

Pig pain

On a more sombre note, it's time for the UK Government to shoulder the blame and the pain for the current sorry state of our killing trade and especially the capacity to kill pigs. This was a story flagged up many months ago and yet Defra's ministers are still trying to say a big boy did it and ran away ... in which they are right, he has a shock of blonde hair and lives at Number 10.

The fact that pig farmers are paying to have their sows chemically aborted is nothing short of a Government-sponsored scandal. We can only hope that the blame is firmly attributed to where it belongs on this one. Though it is not yet happening north of the Border, every farmer must feel the pain for those anguished pig herd owners.