Flock around fun: Scotland's sheep are heading home
The Golden Shears World Sheep Shearing & Woolhandling Championships is returning to the Royal Highland Show in June after 20 years.
Held in the MacRobert Theatre, more than 35 countries from across the world will battle it out to see who is the fastest sheep shearer and who has the best woolhandling technique.
The highly-anticipated event will feature 39 decorated sheep sculptures that are currently on tour across Scotland in the Flock to the Show public art trail.
The Scotsman is the media partner for both events and the Royal Highland Show is held from 22 to 25 June.
Visit the website at royalhighlandshow.org
Meet the artist
Gillian Robb is a part-time art teacher who lives on a farm in Ayrshire that produces beef cows, commercial sheep, and looks after laying hens.
The link between art and farming is of huge interest to Gillian, who has always had an awareness of the similarities between the two.
She looks to the rural landscape and its customs as inspiration; from taking sheep to the Glasgow School of Art, towriting about the relationship between art and farming.
Gillian says: “My designs for Flock to the Show are very personal to me and signify the way I see farming, and what the rural community means to me.
“The painting of the tree line at our family farm signifies the past, present and future, and the power of nature. It is the tree line that means everything – home, family, farming, history, the future, hard work, resilience, emotion, ups and downs, happiness, sunshine, rain, growth.”
Home Sweet Home
Home Sweet Home by Gillian Robb highlights how lack of land availability to entrant Scottish farmers can limit the growth and development of the country’s agricultural sector, reducing competitiveness and resilience.
New farmers may face challenges in accessing land and be forced to rent or buy it at high prices, which can make it difficult to establish a profitable farming operation.
This can lead to a decline in the number of new farmers entering the industry, impacting innovation and competitiveness.
This lack of available land can have significant long-term consequences on the future of Scotland’s agricultural sector.
New entrants are vital to maintaining a dynamic and innovative industry, but without access to land, capital, and opportunity, they may be discouraged from pursuing a career in farming.
This can lead to a decline in the number of farmers and a loss of intergenerational knowledge transfer.
Meet the sponsor
Food Standards Scotland (FSS) was established in April 2015 as the new public sector food body for Scotland to provide impartial advice based on robust scientific data.
It aims to protect the health and wellbeing of consumers via three objectives set by the Food (Scotland) Act 2015: to protect the public from risks to health which may arise in connection with the consumption of food; to improve the extent to which members of the public have diets which are conducive to good health; and to protect the other interests of consumers in relation to food.
FSS said: “Working with the farming industry and primary producers, FSS helps to ensure food is safe and authentic from farm to fork.
“Therefore, we thought it would be a great opportunity to become a sponsor in the Flock to the Show campaign.”
Find your fleece
Locate today’s sheep and access our VIP competition to win free parking, hospitality, and lots more by following this link.