SEPTEMBER 2020 – That Was The Year That Was

Pedigree Texel sales continued their flying trade in September, with the Solway and Tyne Club’s Texel sale of females seeing another record price of 50,000gns paid for a gimmer. The sale, which would normally be staged the evening before the males, was this year moved to the Saturday, and proved a real winner for Edward Pugh from Bala, Gwynedd, when a gimmer from his Glanllyn flock achieved 50,000gns. Furthermore, Mr Pugh who was staging a draft sale of gimmers from the flock, grossed a phenomenal £159,600, with his pen of 12 averaging £13,300 per head. Sale leader and record breaker was an entry by the 6200gns Eden Valley Wiz Kid, which was sired by Sportsman Tremendous. She was bred from a Knap Vicious Sid-sired ewe, that goes back to a 7500gns Sportsmans gimmer. Buying back some of their own genetics, the gimmer sold to Charlie Boden of the Sportsmans flock from Stockport, Cheshire, and Robert Cockburn buying for his Knap flock from Hill of Errol, Errol, Perth.

Scot Gov announced plans to invest £160m in forestry and agriculture. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon unveiled the Government’s Programme for Scotland 2020-21, setting out the actions the government is taking to ensure Scotland’s economic, health, and social recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and beyond. Forestry investment would comprise the majority of the £160m pot, with an injection of £150m to increase new planting, expand Scotland’s national forests and land, and increase the supply of young trees. The remaining £10m was to support a Sustainable Agriculture Capital Grant Scheme to assist farmers and crofters with grants of up to £20,000 to purchase new equipment that will reduce emissions and improve productivity. Rural Economy CabSec, Fergus Ewing, commented: “The forestry sector makes a huge contribution to the rural economy – over £1bn gross value added and 25,000 jobs. This demonstrates the scale of activity in Scotland’s forests, and the potential for making a significant contribution to the green recovery."

Some farmers slammed the new Sustainable Agriculture Capital Grant Scheme as ‘a total waste of money’ that will not help farming deliver on its climate change targets – but others welcomed it as a ‘much needed step change’ for the industry. Moray-based beef and sheep farmer Alistair Nairn, who is a tenant on The Crown Estate, told The SF that the new scheme was ‘chicken feed’ and would not deliver on its objectives: “The SACGS scheme is a joke – it is absolutely ridiculous the list of things we can get; a pasture plate meter; yield monitors; a new hedge scoop for cattle – what are these going to deliver?”

Sheep dog sales also got in on the action of record breaking prices, as two five-figure sales coupled with another new world record price for an unbroken puppy were the highlights of Skipton Auction Mart’s second virtual working sheep dog sale of the year. And, like the first such sale in July, it was the same consignors who hit the headlines with Welsh trialist, Kevin Evans, again selling the two top sellers and Northern Ireland breeder, Donal Mullaney achieving a new record for a pup. Mr Evans, from Modrydd, near Brecon, sold two dogs that go back to his own dual European Nursery and Royal Welsh champion, Tanhill Glen, with the dearest at £12,100 selling to Levi Joensen, of Klaksvik on Bordoy, the northernmost Faroe Island. Selling at this price was the February 2019-born black and white bitch, Barcroft Sophie. She is by Mr Evans’ own trials dog, Derwen Doug, a European Nursery champion and dual Welsh and International brace champion that also sired the £12,550 bitch, Eve. The dam is Sophie Holt’s Jet, another top trial dog, now with Ross Watson.

Love Lamb Week celebrates the best of British Lamb and was back for its sixth year – but with a bang. The week-long campaign from September 1 to 7, promotes the fantastic qualities and versatility of British lamb, as well as a new focus on the greater environmental benefits it brings, making it a sustainable culinary choice. The industry-wide initiative is supported by UK levy boards and unions, as well as butchers, chefs, retailers and farmers, all teaming up to encourage consumers to try all things lamb in a spectacular showcase on social media. Isle of Arran sheep and beef farmer, Pete Brown, Clachaig Farm, has successfully been breeding award winning Border Leicester sheep (BLS) for decades. Moving away from the showring of late, he is keen to promote the fantastic meat the breed produces and has been breeding for carcase shape and twin bearing capacity.

“We have a mountain to climb.” So said Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland chief executive Alan Laidlaw, as the society admitted that it would need outside financial help if its flagship event, the Royal Highland Show, was to go ahead in anything like its usual pomp next year. The sums are stark. The Highland Show is a very successful event, but it has grown to a scale that costs £3 or £4 million to stage, and alongside these year-to-year running costs, its organisers have been spending hard to upgrade the Ingliston Showground, with all new infrastructure below ground, and most recently, an eye-catching modern replacement for the old MacRobert Members Pavilion. But what was doubtless a sensible strategy of ploughing in investment while the going was good has hit rough ground with the Covid-19 pandemic as, like every other entertainment venue in the land, there’s been not a shred of income across the peak season. RHASS estimates that the lockdown has so far cost it around £6 million in lost income, at a time when it has borrowings of around £10 million, and not a lot in reserve!

September saw the announcement that the three crop rule has been scrapped by the Scottish Government as part of its Greening requirements for 2021. Greening regulations – which have been part of direct payment support to farmers and crofters since 2015 and equate to £130m in funding – will continue, but with a new tailor made approach to Scottish agriculture. The move to scrap the three crop rule was a simplification welcomed as common sense by Scotland’s farming union: “NFU Scotland has consistently argued that the EU’s blunt Greening rules were poorly targeted on Scottish environmental issues, so this announcement is a significant step in the right direction,” said NFUS president Andrew McCornick. “Scrapping the Crop Diversification requirement (three crop rule) makes for common sense, while the importance of Permanent Grassland and efficient input use should be explored in the context of both climate ambitions and business performance.”

As the year rumbled on, farmers and landowners had had enough of the ‘endless task’ of clearing up other people’s rubbish – the government must now take serious action to prevent flytipping in Scotland’s countryside. Rampant ‘waste crime’ in rural areas is starkly at odds with Scotland’s reputation for leading on environmental issues, and threatens to be a national embarrassment when the eyes of the world turn here as the country hosts next year’s UN Climate Change Conference. Uniting around this common issue, NFU Scotland, Scottish Land and Estates, the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime, Keep Scotland Beautiful and the Woodland Trust wrote to Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Roseanna Cunningham, to ask that the Scottish Government get serious about tackling flytipping. In the letter, the organisations warned that every week that passes by without serious action is another week of Scotland’s beautiful countryside being used as a dumping ground, causing a wide range of problems to the natural, social and economic environment, including harm to wildlife and livestock, disease transmission, soil contamination, attraction of other crimes and substantial clear-up costs.

Proposals to toughen penalties on livestock attacks were broadly welcomed by industry leaders. The first evidence session for Emma Harper MSP’s ‘Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill’ was held by Holyrood’s rural economy and connectivity committee, allowing for initial scrutiny of its proposals. There was agreement across the board with proposals to toughen terminology to use the word ‘attack’ rather than ‘worrying’, and all were in favour of extending the definition of livestock to include animals such as camelids. However, some participants argued that by focussing on penalties, the Bill had missed an opportunity to address the underlying causes of livestock attacks.

Scotland is soon to be home to the world’s first rural youth dedicated Smart Village – coming this Winter 2020. Leading the launch is Scotland’s Rural Youth Project (RYP), which this time last year was highly commended in the annual ‘Helping it Happen’ awards for its efforts in inspiring and developing the next generation of rural leaders. The team at RYP hope this new exciting digital platform will provide an online hub for young people to connect, build or expand their enterprise and leaderships skills and to trade – championing young people to collaboratively build vibrant, creative, and sustainable rural economies in the places they call home. Ahead of the launch this winter, young people have been given the chance to feed in to the future development of the hub to ensure it ties in with the needs of Scotland’s rural communities Co-founders and directors of the RYP, Jane Craigie and Rebecca Dawes, said: “The RYP Smart Village is an opportunity to provide a digital place that really benefits young people in many aspects of their rural lives.”

Britain’s farms need 70,000 non-UK workers on the ground next year – 10,000 of them in Scotland – or there will be a huge drop in food production. This month, as the horticultural sector wound down its 2020 season, Scottish fruit and vegetable growers called on the UK Government to commit to a full seasonal workers scheme that will allow for that level of recruitment – whether from EU or non-EU countries – and warned that without such a scheme in place as many as 40% of Scottish growers would simply stop producing food. While the UK fruit’n’veg sector muddled through the problems of 2020, with some help from local recruits furloughed from their real jobs, the fact is that many experienced EU workers still made it onto UK farms. The real crunch will come on the stroke of midnight December 31, when freedom of movement of people from the EU will formally come to an end. Ahead of the 2020 season, NFU Scotland and the UK farming unions provided ample evidence that those 70,000 seasonal staff were essential to maintain production, and in answer to those statistics, the UK government introduced a Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme allowing 10,000 permits from workers from outside the EU to work in the UK.

Bute welcomed a new farming family, with the re-letting of Plan Farm on a long term tenancy from the Mount Stuart Trust. Archie and Cathinka Paterson were successful in what the trust described as a ‘very competitive’ tender for the tenancy, and will now take charge of a farm which extends across 1400 ha of the southern peninsula of the island, including the remains of St Blane’s Monastery. Crucially, the tenancy is for 20 years, giving this young family a real opportunity to build themselves a successful farming career on Bute. The Patersons relocated from their previous tenancy in Kilmacolm, Ayrshire. Archie is a self-made shepherd and Cathinka is a certified sheepdog instructor. Originally from Norway, she joins a community of shepherdesses on the island who all train working Collie dogs. Having previously farmed on seasonal grazings, the Patersons are looking forward to farming on land straight out of their back door.