Farm Life

Like rural tourism businesses across the UK, Scotland’s Agritourism Monitor Farm businesses have had a rough ride over the last few months, but there are green shoots of recovery on the horizon. Ewan Pate reports.

While the world is captured by the ravages of Covid 19, the practice of a former political spin doctor to use a ‘crisis to bury bad news’ is as alive as ever.

Farming in his own right is a life-long dream of Fraser Murray’s, so when he got the opportunity to take on some land of his own, he decided to think outside the box to get the wheels in motion. Hannah Park finds out more.

Defra non-executive director Ben Goldsmith has called for ‘rewilding’ to be renamed ‘wilder farming’ in order to reassure farmers they are central to the movement.

With the Covid-19 virus still causing mayhem and hardship throughout the UK, it is at least encouraging to see things move forward and start to open up in England. Our Scottish leader is very popular, although she is taking a very cautious approach to leading Scotland out of lockdown.

I am writing this with a broken heart, having just had to have my young dog Kip put down. She was only two and a promising young bitch with the kindest, sweetest, nature of any dog I have known.

Proving age is just a number, 14-year-old Henry Harrison is rising to the challenges of the UK trialling scene, competing at the same level as some of the country’s most experienced handlers.

A massive 80 per cent of rural businesses are expecting their profits to fall in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest Rural Sentiment Survey from Knight Frank.

A glance at the calendar indicates this should be Royal Highland Show week, a time when tens of thousands of people usually flock to Edinburgh to enjoy one of the UK’s premier shows.

Laura Wilson, 23, from Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, is the daughter of a beef farmer and recently joined KW Feeds as assistant blends manager.