'We don't feel valued' - Farmer angst over political uncertainty at Royal Highland Show
With hundreds of thousands of people walking through the gates to celebrate Scotland’s largest agricultural show, you would think farmers felt supported.
But that wasn’t the general feeling among members of the farming community attending the Royal Highland Show in 2025, a year that has seen political change bring an uncertain future for many in the sector across the UK.
Political promises
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Hide AdRural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon opened the show with promise sounding statements, including the Scottish Government’s decision to reject climate change advice to cut livestock numbers by almost 30 per cent by 2040.
However, Tory MSPs attending the show, including Tim Eagle and Finlay Carson, were quick to point out cattle herds and sheep flocks are in decline anyway, with little to no mention of how policy will protect numbers dwindling further.


Ms Gougeon also announced £14m will be available for farmers to apply for funding for the Future Farmers Investment scheme.
Some in the industry, however, felt this will only back a few hundred businesses and will instead just “get hopes up.”
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Hide AdFarmers on the ground were fairly dismissive of the SNP politicians bearing gifts, with some in the showground accusing ministers of paying lip service.
Uncertain future for next generation
Ewan McCall, who farms Luing cattle near Golspie, in the north east Highlands, spoke to The Scotsman about the uncertainty he feels in the sector and for his children, who he hopes will have a future in agriculture.


“It has been a tough year,” he said.
“We have had a lot of pressures from government: inheritance tax, the ongoing problems with tree planting and the grab for land for that.
“There are the trade deal issues as well. There’s so much uncertainty at the moment that we don’t feel valued. We don’t really know what the future will be for the next generation.”
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Hide AdMr McCall said the declining beef herds, if left to continue, will impact the wider agricultural industry.
“We don’t want the cattle numbers to drop any further, nor sheep numbers,” he said.
“We need to think about food security at a government level and take it seriously. We are in a very uncertain world at the moment.”
On a positive note, the farmer said prices for cattle are currently good.
But it’s a small bonus.
“There are mixed emotions,” Mr McCall added.
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Hide Ad“Our personal businesses have been okay. But it’s the ongoing background pressures that probably have been putting a dampener on things.
“I am positive about the future but I would like to have more certainty about how things are going to progress and what the future holds for the next generation, for my kids.”
Real impact of ‘family-farm tax’
Farming unions said they are going to keep up the pressure on UK ministers to revise or u-turn on the “family farm” tax proposals.
However, Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Murray, who attended the show on Thursday, said the party will not budge.
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Hide AdIt is one of the many worries looming over the farming industry, including for Mr McColl.
“The difficulty is if I was to die early, my kids would be faced with massive inheritance tax,” he said. “The farm would have to be sold and they wouldn’t get the chance to farm and that’s something I feel really strongly about. In that respect, it’s not good at all.”
Laura Needhin, farmer in Aberdeenshire, echoed Mr McCall’s concerns.


“There’s a lot of uncertainty ahead,” she said.
“I don’t think the Labour government, in particular, are backing farmers enough.
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Hide Ad“Inheritance tax for lots of small farms that have moved through families for 200 hundred years are going to be gone. It’s a big worry for a lot of farmers.”
At the opening of this year’s show, the National Farmers Union Scotland (NFUS) called on the Scottish Government to promise a multi-annual funding commitment for the farming sector.
Lack of detail on future of subsidies to support farmers
It comes after years of uncertainty on how Scotland’s subsidy system will work post-EU with only half of the scheme confirmed a decade after Brexit.
Sheep farmer and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) lecturer Heather Kerr said while price stability in the sector is relatively good at the moment, “it’s always something you worry about because, long-term, we don’t have a huge amount of information with what’s going on with subsidies.”
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Ms Kerr added: “It’s difficult to plan so that we can be in a good place when the changes come as they are not things that you can just change overnight.”
The college lecturer said while the employment rate for students with rural skills is high, the barrier for new entrants into farming still remains strong for those without the cash for land.
At a debate held in the NFUS stand at the show, promises were made from politicians of all political stripes to do more to encourage new entrants and young farmers in the industry.
A young farmer’s outlook
Young farmer Alice Haig, who farms with her dad in Forfar, pointed to multiple challenges the younger generation face in the sector.
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Hide Ad“We’re not as supported as people think we are. There’s a bit of a rift in between people in towns and rural folk, and I think that’s come on since this UK government has come in power.”
She said the reality of farming doesn’t always appeal to her peers, which could explain labour shortages in the sector.
“Sometimes younger people think it’s a nine to five but it’s not,” Ms Haig said.
“It’s hard to get a job that’s got set hours in farming. It’s hard to make a good amount of money in farming. It’s also hard to get reasonably priced housing in rural areas. It’s cheaper to live in towns and cities, you get better paid, you can plan for the future. So I think farming suffers a bit from that.
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“It’s not just young farmers. I think the lack of support that farming is getting as a whole means we are not supported as young farmers and we don’t see it as a prospect that we might once have done.”
Agriculture ‘well down the pecking order’
Elsewhere, farmers shared the undervalued sentiment.
Gordon McConochie , a farmer from Grantown-on-spey in the Cairngorms National Park, said agriculture seems to be “well down the pecking order” when it comes to other land management such as species reintroductions.


He said the increase in raptors has been “phenomenal”, but the impact on the farming community and other species are often overlooked.
“I have no faith in any of the politicians to do anything radical. They seem to be scared to venture into agriculture. We are the whipping boys of the country at the moment.
“Our farming leaders need to be stronger.”
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Hide AdRetired farmer Andrew McConchie, who ran a livestock farm in Dumfries and Galloway, said: “I represent hill farming. The only thing the governments seem to be interested in is carbon capture.


“My grandson started farming now, I retired ten years ago, I definitely wouldn’t change places with him. You just don’t know whether you’re wanted or not.
“I farmed when farmers were wanted.”
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