With the death recently of Ian Salmon, aged 78, Scottish agriculture lost from its ranks a well-known and respected farmer who spent a working lifetime building and improving his successful enterprise at Mains of Logie, near Montrose.

He was also a founder member of Grampian Growers, one of the country’s main co-operatives, and a leading light for many years in the Scottish National Fatstock Club.

Ian’s move to Mains of Logie was at four years old, when his father, John Salmon, a noted cattle finisher, moved to the farm from Ethie Mains, at Inverkeilor. At that time, Mains of Logie was 350 acres of medium loam soil on which the Salmon family began to build a growing reputation for cereal and potato production and beef cattle including a small Aberdeen Angus herd.

With a cow of his own, young Ian was credited with being the youngest member of the Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society.

After attending Morrisons Academy, at Crieff, where his initiation into rugby and his love for the game was to last a lifetime, he later studied at the East of Scotland College of Agriculture, in Edinburgh, where he continued to enjoy his rugby playing with Border stalwarts from Galashiels, Hawick and Kelso during the week, then home at week-ends to play for Montrose with many of his local farming friends.

It was said in later years that in any 'all-time' selection of the best Montrose players, Ian Salmon’s place as scrum-half was assured.

Ian left the East College and started farming at Logie Mains when his father John died in 1965. From the start, he was to make his own mark in farming when he proved an innovative and progressive thinker who was instrumental in the formation of Grampian Growers in 1968, of which he later became founder chairman.

Based beside Logie Mains, by common consent the co-op is one of the leading farming groups of its type in the UK with 41 farmer members growing 6m bunches of daffodils, 4000 tonnes of daffodil bulbs and 18,000 tonnes of potatoes each year for sale both within the UK and overseas.

The seed for Ian’s interest and enthusiasm for daffodils came with a 21st birthday gift of one tonne of bulbs from his uncle David Cargill, in Norfolk. In earlier years, strawberries, raspberries, sugar beet and peas were also part of the output from Mains of Logie.

Over the years, Ian’s abilities and ambition saw Mains of Logie grow from the original acreage to the present total of more than 800 acres and he was awarded the title of running the best mixed large farm in the early 1970s.

In addition to the growth of cereals, potatoes and daffodil production, Ian maintained over the years his interest and commitment to beef production, not only on his own farm but in the wider world of the showring.

He was, for 45 years, a steward at the annual Scottish National Fatstock Show and the respect shown in the farming industry for his work also led to roles as a director of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland and honorary president of Fettercairn Show.

A beef suckler herd was established in the early 1990s and the farm now runs 80 head of breeding cows crossed with Hereford, Simmental and Angus bulls. Herd replacements are bred on the farm and all stock are finished at Mains of Logie.

For relaxation, Ian was a keen shot and used to regularly have a shoot at Mains of Logie. In recent years, he also embraced Scottish country dancing when he and his late wife, Pam, proved stalwart members of the Kinneff Reelers, a small group of local farming friends.

He was also for an elder of his local Church of Scotland at Hillside for around 40 years.

Above all, however, in his later years Ian was a devoted grandparent to his 10 grandchildren. Although rugby had been his main sport when younger, he would take great pride in watching the youngsters in all of their pursuits – ranging from son, Peter’s two sons playing football, or daughter Highland dancing; his daughter, Claire’s daughters in their drama or dance shows; or son, John’s two sons playing sport or participating in drama or music.

Ian was on holiday in Lanzarote with his family when he suddenly became ill. He was flown home to Scotland but later died in a nursing home in Montrose peacefully and surrounded by his three children. Ian’s wife Pam died two years ago.

Mains of Logie is now farmed by Ian and Pam’s son, Peter, formerly a vet. Their elder son John is a lawyer who works in financial technology in London, while daughter Claire is a doctor in Sheffield specialising in liver disease.