Marketing Blog

I recently visited a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a paediatric hospital for children with some of the rarest forms of cancer. At the heart of the hospital is a café, with freshly cooked food, much of it made with ingredients from the hospital’s garden. The...

Scotland has 573 co-operatives with a combined turnover of £2.4bn. Co-ops have a reputation for being old-fashioned and for failing, yet, they are one and a half times more likely to survive their first five years than a conventional start-up business. The ethos of...

From early mornings shifting cattle before the school bus, to summer holidays touring round the local agricultural show circuit, nothing has shaped my life and personality more than being a livestock farmer’s daughter. 1. Livestock come first, but family is essential...

From father to son My life changed after asking my mother the simple question, “why are we not on the farm anymore?” Like most families, it’s difficult to explain our experience with succession. My ancestors, the Applebees, migrated to Australia from Yorkshire in the...

Now mid-week beer tent socials have halted, the young farmer summer syllabus closed and straw filled socks and wellies are slowly dwindling, that time of year creeps closer once again. This is the year they all say, the biggie. The partying dies down a little, the...

Minnesota is one of the most northerly states in the USA, it borders Canada and temperatures plummet to as low as -50oC in the winter blizzards and rise to as high as 46oC with tornado threats in the summer months. Historically, this mid-west state came to be known as...

The combination of high land prices, escalating input costs and low returns is a perpetual challenge for farmers. In the Netherlands where the price of arable land averaged €63,000/ha (£58,000) in 2016, the economics are stacked against agriculture. With a background...

Summer months – light nights, silage time and the season for agricultural shows. It’s the time of year when jams and preserves get competitive, beer tents are buzzing, and farmers show and parade some of the country’s finest livestock. Our agricultural shows are,...

We have all read an article or listened to a speech where the emphasis on the “Next Generation” was paramount to the future of our industry and whilst I don’t disagree we have an important role to play, we must collaborate across generations for the sustainability of...

Recently I joined four other Rural Youth Project delegates and fifteen Scottish Enterprise Rural Leaders on a mission to “think different” about our communities and businesses. Hailing from all corners of Scotland, strangers soon became friends after five days...

Growing up at Scotland’s most southerly point, where tractors and cows dominate the roads, meant heading down the swarming motorway towards Oxford, was an exciting adventure for my country bumpkin-self. After accepting a Summer internship with agri -comms specialist...

It’s February and we’ve (Jane & her husband Mike) travelled 1,185 miles from Aberchirder to Chateaux D’Oex in Switzerland for some late winter skiing. We’re staying in a regional ‘nature park’called Gruyère Pays-d’Enhaut, 90-minutes from Geneva, an area that...