Arable farmer of the year award is back

The Scottish Arable Farm of the Year award, run by AgriScot, is to take place again this year after a lockdown induced absence in 2020.

However, the organisers have made a number of changes to the competition, including an alteration of the time during which the judging will be carried out.

AgriScot Director and Arable award convenor, John Kinnaird, said that this would now be carried out over the summer months, prior to harvest:

“We are now calling for nominations and entries over the next month or so, and our assessors aim to then produce a short list of three farms to visit in July.

“We believe it gives farmers a better opportunity to show crops and farms looking at their best at a potentially less busy time of year.”

And with previous winners of the competition, which was first launched in 2017 coming from Aberdeenshire, Ross-shire and Fife he asked for more entrants from these areas – but, with his eye clearly on growers in the Borders and Lothians - he also called on those in ‘the renowned arable areas in the south of Scotland’ to take up the challenge:

“That said, our task is not to reward the best farms with the easiest soils and friendliest climates; what we are looking for are farms demonstrating that they are doing their very best with what they have!” said Kinnaird.

Kinnaird will be joined by John Weir, from 2019 Scottish Arable Farm of the Year, Lacceston in Fife, to assess this year’s entries.