This year will mark 25 years since the foundation of the AgriScot farm business event.

Back in 1994 – in its original format as DairyScot – the event very much had a focus on that sector. However, moving with the times and mirroring changes in the wider industry the event transformed into AgriScot in 2001 and now has wide appeal to professionals from all farming sectors.

For 2019, The Scottish Farmer is once again proud to be media partner of AgriScot. We believe one of the most important aspects of the event is the annual programme of awards. These prestigious accolades – for product innovation, farms of the year and business skills – are renowned for showcasing excellence, rewarding hard work and disseminating best practice.

On these two pages, we feature a roll-call of previous AgriScot award recipients and would sincerely encourage those thinking of entering or nominating for the 2019 awards to ‘Go for it!’ – you/your team/your hard-working neighbour/your top performing client – deserve it!

Yours aye

Ken Fletcher

Editor

AGRISCOT BUSINESS SKILLS AWARD

This award is open to young people up to 26 years old who can demonstrate expertise in agri-business management tasks.

Regional heats (north and south) are held in October each year with the final held on the day of AgriScot. Winning, or even simply taking part, provides a great personal and career development opportunity and is a great asset to any CV.

The recipients to date:

2018 – Craig Stout

2017 – Andrew McGregor

2016 – Heather Kerr

2015 – Claire Simonetta

2014 – Ross Learmonth

2013 – Joseph Williams

2012 – Sara Sands

2011 – Donald Millar

2010 – Ian Christie

Heather Kerr – a previous a previous recipient of the award and now a lecturer at SRUC – is the co-ordinator of this award. Anyone interested in finding out more can e-mail Heather at: Heather.Kerr@sruc.ac.uk

AGRISCOT PRODUCT INNOVATION AWARD

The AgriScot Product Innovation Award is open to any AgriScot tradestand exhibitor.

The aim – in keeping with the ethos of AgriScot – is to showcase and celebrate innovation. The award is judged on the day prior to AgriScot, thus enabling award certificates to be proudly displayed to stand visitors on the big day.

The recipients to date:

2018 – Diversey UK

2017 – FRS Herdwatch

2016 – Dairy Spares Ltd

2015 – Boehringer

Ingelheim

2014 – Premier Livestock Handling

2013 – Tanco Autowrap

2012 – Easy Cow Lift

2011 – Premier Livestock Handling

The AgriScot team, within the Rural Projects Ltd office, directly co-ordinate this award and will happily answer any enquiries via e-mail to info@agriscot.co.uk

AGRISCOT SCOTCH BEEF FARM OF THE YEAR

This prestigious award is organised in conjunction with QMS and aims to reward excellence or new thinking in beef cattle farming.

In keeping with the ethos of all farm of the year awards, it is not necessarily the “best” farm that will win – the assessors like the moto “it’s no’ what ye hae, its what ye dae wi’ what ye hae!”

The recipients to date:

2018 – Bielgrange, Dunbar,

East Lothian

2017 – Castle Sinniness,

Glenluce,

Wigtownshire

2016 – Drumdow,

Stranraer,

Wigtownshire

2015 – Darnford, Banchory,

Aberdeenshire

2014 – Wedderlie, Gordon,

Berwickshire.

2013 – Netherton, Holm,

Orkney

2012 – Upper Nisbet,

Jedburgh,

Roxburghshire

Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) provides the co-ordinator for this award. Alana Black at QMS will be delighted to hear from you with entries and nominations.

AGRISCOT SCOTTISH SHEEP FARM OF THE YEAR

This year is the fifth year of this award, which is run with the support of QMS and with a similar ethos to the other farm of the year awards.

The four recipients to date have each shown something slightly different to the assessors – from innovative use of social media to promote the whole industry to the very best use of grazed grass to dedication to stock breeding.

The recipients to date:

2018 – Incheoch, Alyth,

Perthshire

2017 – Barnside, Abbey St

Bathans,

Berwickshire

2016 – Bankhouse, Stow,

Selkirkshire

2015 – Armadale,

Sutherland

This award is also co-ordinated by QMS. Please contact Alana Black for further information.

AGRISCOT SCOTTISH ARABLE FARM OF THE YEAR

This is the newest in the stable of AgriScot ‘Farm of the Year’ awards has attracted great support from the industry and the recipients to date have done extremely well to rise to the top against some first-class entries.

The AgriScot team believes that Scotland has some of the best performing arable farms in the whole of Britain and this award sets out to celebrate that.

The recipients to date:

2018 – Rhynie Farm, Tain,

Easter Ross

2017 – South Redbog,

Strichen,

Aberdeenshire

Chris Leslie, the new cereals and oilseeds manager for AHDB in Scotland is the co-ordinator for this award. Please contact him for further details Chris.Leslie@ahdb.org.uk

AGRISCOT SCOTTISH DAIRY FARM OF THE YEAR

There have now been 10 outstanding recipients of this highly respected award.

A key message from the recipients and finalists to date has been how much this award is appreciated by the staff and family teams on the farms. For 2019, this award will again be open to entries and nominations in the same manner as the other farm of the year awards.

The recipients to date:

2018 – Laigh Tarbeg,

Cumnock, East

Ayrshire

2017 – Meldrum, Blair

Drummond,

Stirlingshire

2016 – Trailflat, Lochmaben,

Dumfries-shire

2015 – Kennetsideheads,

Eccles, Berwickshire

2014 – Meldrum, Blair

Drummond,

Stirlingshire

2013 - Dendoldrum,

Inverbervie,

Aberdeenshire

2012 – Drum Farm,

Beeswing,

Dumfriesshire

2011 – East Drumlemble,

Campbeltown,

Kintyre

2010 – Potstown, Lockerbie,

Dumfriesshire

2009 – Dendoldrum,

Inverbervie,

Kincardineshire

AgriScot Director and dairy farmer, Gilmour Lawrie, co-ordinates this award and will be happy to provide any further information on how to nominate or enter this award. E-mail: sandyfordfarm@aol.com