The Royal Highland Show

Every year we have the great pleasure of spending time at our local show near Edinburgh. We travel and visit lots of international shows but “The Highland” is always a firm favourite. This year in particular we had two new employees who had only joined us that week, along with many long serving staff, all meeting and talking to our local customers. It is vital to keep everyone grounded and real. So directors, software developers, crop modellers etc all mix in with the usual sales and support staff.

We also tried something new this year – some unstructured informal, “Future of Farming” breakfasts. This was a chance to gather researchers, farmers and policy people together to help ascertain what was needed, what was possible and what was desirable. I have observed for quite some time that amongst any one of these three groups, there is a lack of understanding and perhaps a lack of respect for the other two. By putting all of them together in a totally open format we had hoped to bridge that divide a little. Whether or not we achieved this lofty ambition we certainly had some thought provoking discussions. The main concerns from all quarters were about sustainability (both financial and environmental). Soil health and ecosystem services featured heavily. We consider this to be a nod in the direction that we should carry on developing. The focus is clear that we have to do our part in more than reducing costs but increasing usable output sustainably from every measure of input.

Exciting times ahead.