Our industry leaders and lobbyists' hopes and desires for 2019 have made some interesting reading with their five 'wants' for 2019 - inn particular, NFUS' president Andrew McCornick's is here.

So, I thought I'd share mine – though they may not be a million miles away from the thoughts of some of those contributors ...

* It's time for politics to grow up. Time for it to stop pandering to minority interests and face up to, and work together to re-shape Britain for the post-Brexit future. So far, it has been a maelstrom of self-interest, jingoism and misplaced outrage at the banal.

So, politicians, stop being tiny tots led by the last facebook or Twitter post and (at the risk of being 'non-inclusive') grow into being proper statesmen and women.

* We all have to come up with a plan for regenerating this great business into being a sexy and attractive place for young people to work in. In many respects, it is already so, but the industry as a whole has to push the boundaries of ag-PR further than it has ever done. We have to become savvy to new media streams and we have to channel resource into those.

In essence, the industry has to get its head around the fact that it should be proud of what it does. It should be deeply satisfied that the end product that fills the fridges and dining tables across not just this country, but in others too, is of world class quality. Time for us all to stand up for ourselves. Time to be proud to be a farmer (thanks Doug Avery).

* Let 2019 be the year in which ScotGov re-assesses its policy of blanket afforestation of Scotland's hills and glens to the detriment of local communities and the very essence of rural living.

There are too many fragile areas where people are being forced off the land in the name of 'carbon capture' by afforestation. It is time to stop and re-assess whether this is in the long-term interest of the country or not. For instance, there's no point in having a new national park in south-west Scotland, if all that will be ring-fenced within it will be serried ranks of soft woods.

* On renewable energy, we need more, trustworthy work to be done on proving that everything which is done in our name actually delivers what it is supposed to.

Someone needs to work out and then tell us all how transporting lorry loads of draff, or rye on a 300-mile round trip by road to feed bio-digesters makes sense; or how long it takes for each single wind turbine to pay-off the carbon footprint it sits on. Only then we can have a positive and knowledgeable discussion about renewables.

* And, finally, my most fervent wish is that 2019 will be the year in which a Border Leicester emerges that is good enough to win the inter-breed at the Royal Highland Show. Now, that would be something!