Focus on land as spring draws near

Welcome to the first quarterly magazine from the farming desks of The Courier and The Press & Journal.

The approach of spring brings a fresh focus on the land and Mark Twain’s advice to “buy land, they’re not making it anymore” goes some way towards explaining the demand which hasn’t diminished despite the continuing political indecision and uncertainty over Brexit.

The best quality soils never pose too many dilemmas, but what are the future options for land in the lessfavoured areas that make up about 75% of Scotland?

The industry’s deep-rooted antithesis towards forestry is well documented and the mistakes of the past will be glaringly evident in our landscapes for decades to come. Tenants with shortterm leases rightly fear the full-on Government drive for more trees, so it’s for sound reasons that the Scottish Tenant Farmers’ Association and farmers’ union have set their faces against many developments.

And yet, in the right places, there are forestry opportunities which could benefit hill livestock producers, and these are rarely explored in the farming press. For that reason we invited the woodland body, Confor to outline the case for trees.

Elsewhere, Scottish farmland is under pressure, and not just for more food production, biofuels and housing. Major infrastructure and construction projects are increasingly making their mark on the landscape.

In the region our newspapers cover, land is being lost or permanently reshaped by the duelling of the A9 and Aberdeen’s Western Peripheral Route, the cross Tay link road, the Almondbank flood prevention plan, gas pipelines and the upgrading of the countless overhead electricity lines that crisscross the country. These projects may be vital for an efficient, modern country, but they can have a severe impact on agricultural businesses which happen to be in the way. We hear from one young company which offers to work exclusively on behalf of farmers.

There are seven pages of the latest machinery available on the market, and on the livestock front we feature visits to two successful cattle breeders ahead of the next round of bull sales in Stirling.

Get in touch with feedback and suggestions. And we’ll be back in May with more.

In some places forestry opportunities can benefit livestock producers.