This farming stalwart star
THE FIRST winner of the Argyll and the Isles ‘stalwart’ award is announced
ONE OF the most recognisable and bestloved figures in Scottish farming has been given the first Argyll and the Isles ‘stalwart’ award, recognising her contribution to agriculture over many years.
In the manner of presenters at many a TV award show over the years, John Semple tried his best to avoid identifying the winner until late in his introduction, but knew it would be in vain.
The past NFUS regional chairman merely had to mention Dalmally Mart in the first couple of minutes of his speech, and the penny dropped among the assembled union membership in Tarbert’s Stonefield Castle Hotel.
As for the worthy winner, the redoubtable Sybil MacPherson, she covered her face in shock at the knowledge that she would be the first to receive an award in memory of two other farming figures she knew so well.
The new Argyll and the Isles Stalwart quaich is in memory of Mull farmers Bert Leitch and Lachlan Maclean, who sadly died in 2015. They were each staunch members of the union, and local NFUS members made the decision last year to establish the annual award in their memory.
Farming at Brackley, near Dalmally, Sybil has been a driving force behind hill farming in the region. She and husband George featured in the first series of the BBC’s successful This
Farming Life which showed to millions the trials, tribulations and beauty of farming on the West Coast.
Hard-working
Sybil currently chairs NFU Scotland’s Lorn branch and has a seat on the union’s Less Favoured Areas committee. She is also a hard-working chairwoman of the National Sheep Association’s Scottish region.
A supporter of the coop Argyll Hill Lamb, few have done more to promote the quality and taste of lamb produced from the region’s hills and mountains.
Lachlan’s son Jamie made the trip to Tarbert with his uncle Donald to present the award.
Jamie said: ‘Dad would be just delighted to see Sybil getting this award. She was never off the phone to him organising this and that, whether to do with the union or sheep meetings, and they got on really well.
‘The award couldn’t have gone to a better person.’
A modest Sybil said: ‘I’m just so shocked. No way did I think I was going to get this award, but I knew Bert and Lachlan so well and this means so much to me.’
She reserved a special word for her husband: ‘It’s George who stays and does the work at home to let me go to all over the place. And we wouldn’t have done This Farming
Life if George hadn’t encouraged me against my will.’
‘He was right in doing that, because I think the programme has helped people understand what we do. She added: ‘Thank you very much to the union, and for as long as I am able, I will work to keep Argyll agriculture in the forefront of people’s minds.’