News from the field

Image courtesy of ORganic Rapeseed oil

Rural Britain is a wonderful assortment of farms, estates, hamlets, villages, forests and moors, lochs and valleys. Our stunning scenery, close communities and wonderful rural businesses provide an idyllic lifestyle for many, but rural life can also throw up some pretty unique challenges.

The Rural Scene (the Scene & Herd rural blog and news updates) looks at what’s new, what’s relevant, what’s tasty, what’s fun and what’s challenging about life in the Great British Countryside. We offer an insider insight into rural Britain, highlighting some of the exceptional people, businesses and innovations we believe that everybody should know about.

OnFARM Podcast: Royal Highland Show 2023: OnFARM round-up

From the cattle ring, to the Highland Hall and the machinery lines and everywhere in between, Monty and Dave catch up with the Sheep Game's Cammy Wilson, celebrate the Highland Pony Society's centenary with president Sylvia Ormiston, and check in with veteran Kelso stockman Keith Redpath, ahead of his prestigious task of judging the beef interbreed teams.

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OnFARM Podcast: Golden Shears world shearing championships at the Royal Highland Show

The Golden Shears world sheep shearing championships are hosted in 2023 by the Royal Highland Show. The competition's first return to Scotland in over 20 years has teams from 30 countries competing in machine shearing, hand shearing, and wool handling categories. Competitors gathered earlier this week for a last-minute training session at Crookston Farm in the Borders. OnFARM's Monty and producer Dave were there too.

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Don't Let Go!

It always amazes us that otherwise responsible citizens who wouldn't dream of littering the countryside will happily release balloons and let paper lanterns float off into the sky without any thought as to what will happen to them! If you know of anyone planning to release balloons or lanterns, please share this information with them. Together, we can help protect the countryside and keep our animals safe.

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June 2023

At the time of writing, Scotland has experienced its hottest day of the year so far and has had just slightly more than half the normal amount of rainfall for the time of year. While the dry, warm weather will delight summer show organisers and festival attendees, it will undoubtedly cause problems for many of you.

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OnFARM Podcast: RHET chairman's cycle challenge

RHET chairman and Dumfries and Galloway farmer Alistair Marshall is midway through a cross-Scotland cycling challenge fundraiser, when he hopes to visit primary schools in all 13 RHET regions in the run-up to the Royal Highland Show. The aim is to raise £10,000 to support RHET to continue to provide free educational activities and experiential learning for young people aged 3 -18 years.

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