ONLINE SCOTTISH AGRICULTURAL SHOW LAUNCHED

● The Press and Journal and The Courier are platforming Scotland’s first virtual agricultural event during the pandemic lockdown

Bring out the bunting – Scotland’s summer show season is back in business!

There’s only one place to be on July 3 and 4, and that’s in the action-packed showground of the online Scottish Agricultural Show.

After months of mourning the lack of social gatherings, fierce competition in the livestock rings, shiny machinery displays and tempting arrays of food and drink, The Press and Journal and The Courier have partnered with the Royal Highland Show to create a virtual event that will encompass all the essential elements for a great couple of days out.

And unlike normal summer shows you won’t need your wellies “just in case” as the sun is guaranteed to shine all day!

To bring the showground to life we’re calling on cattle, sheep, horse, goat and poultry producers to video their top stock which will be judged online by some of the country’s most respected livestock breeders. There will be classes for the main breeds, young handlers will have their own sections, and all the videos will be posted on the show website for everyone to view.

There are full instructions on how to take part at www.scottishagriculuralshow. co.uk so get involved, start halter training that heifer or walking your goat. You’ve got until midnight on June 19 to enter and stand a chance of winning 2020’s only show in town.

We’ll have a beer tent where you can meet up with folk, and while you might not be able to touch all the new tractors and combines, the country’s main dealers and businesses will have trade stands to pore over while you wait for the judging to be completed. We’re not forgetting farming heritage either, which will be represented with a class for vintage machinery.

The food and drink tent will act as a shop window for all our top-class agricultural produce, and chefs will give cookery demonstrations and offer tips on how to make the most of Scotland’s delicious larder.

And once you’re inspired to start baking you’ll find all the details of how to enter the cake competition on the website.

DC Thomson is throwing all its weight behind organising Scotland’s first virtual agricultural show, a move which the company’s head of newspapers, Richard Neville, said was in response to a desire from readers and advertisers for a way of maintaining some sort of show presence this summer.

“We hope that all exhibitors and entrants enjoy the experience and hopefully it will show that there can be a digital alternative to even the oldest and most traditional events in our packed agribusiness calendar,” he said.

Getting the mighty Royal Highland Show’s unqualified support has been a huge boost, and one of the show directors, farmer Kay Adam from Angus, gave the online event her enthusiastic backing.

“Excellent judges have been lined up to take part and I hope many of the breeders who had hoped to parade in the shows this summer will feature on the small screen in this show,” she said.

Our main sponsor is EQ Accountants, one of the leading providers of accountancy, tax and business advice to Scotland’s agricultural industry. Also on board so far are Rural Scotland (champion of champions), ANM Group (beef cattle), Samaritans (sheep), Netherton Tractors (trade stands), Angus Timber Cabins (dogs), Mackays Dundee (baking), Red Poppy (food tent), Bon Accord Soft Drinks (drinks tent), Balgownie (vintage tractors), Stewart’s Resort (leisure tent), Gin Bothy (horses) and 71 Brewing (beer tent).

EQ partner Graeme Davidson emphasised how much the agricultural community would miss the traditional show season this summer.

He added: “We enjoy welcoming clients and friends to our stands at the Fife, Angus and Turriff Shows. We’ll miss that this year but hope that the virtual show provides a way of supporting those communities in an interesting and innovative way.”

All show information can be found at www.scottishagriculturalshow.co.uk and on the Press and Journal and Courier websites.

At times it has felt like this day would never come, the first of what promises to be a slow and painstaking return to life as normal. Everyone will be looking forward to something different: visiting family and friends, playing some sport or buying plants for the garden.

Of course, our enthusiasm for these new-found freedoms must stay tempered by the knowledge they are still strictly limited for a reason.

We all want the next stage to be a shift to phase two, not a miserable return to full lockdown.

But even if our bodies remain constrained, our minds are most certainly not.

With a healthy dose of inspiration and imagination we can still find ways to have the good times we were hoping for despite it all.

Proof, if anyone needed it, lies in the unveiling of a full-blown agricultural show, that staple of north and north-east summers, that will take place entirely online in July.

Livestock competitions, tractor demonstrations, cookery lessons – even the beer tent – all the best-loved ingredients for a great day out are being recreated digitally.

Necessity, to quote a phrase first used in a book about a tour of Scotland, is the mother of invention.

And oh boy, do we need projects like this.

“With a healthy dose of inspiration and imagination, we can still find ways to have the good times”