ANGUS ARABLE farmer James Black has been installed as the new chairman of the Council of Awards of the Royal Agricultural Societies (CARAS), taking over from Flintshire dairy farmer Terrig Morgan.

The chairmanship of CARAS , the body which selects recipients of Fellowships and Associateships of the Royal Agricultural Societies, rotates around the four nations of the UK with tenure lasting two years. Mr Black, who farms 1000 acres with his family from their base at Backboath, Forfar, is a former director of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland and a former chairman of the NFU Scotland potato committee.

He was installed at a meeting of the national CARAS panel in Carnoustie following farm walks at Backboath and the Porter family’s unit at Scryne, Carnoustie.

A collection taken at a supper held at the Rookery Restaurant following the farm walks raised £1000 for the Scottish Air Ambulance Service. Only a few days before the meeting, the ambulance had airlifted Perthshire farmer Murray Alexander, a Fellow of the Royal Agricutural Societies (FRAgS), to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, following an incident with a newly calved cow.