Latest Press Releases

Favourite television presenter announced as host of a new podcast series for Farmstrong Scotland Most people know Sarah Stephen from her work as a television presenter. Not everyone will be aware that Sarah - who many still refer to by her maiden name Sarah Mack –...

Living well in order to be able to farm and croft well is one of the key Farmstrong Scotland messages. We meet the crofters who are reaping the benefits of finding some time for themselves … It took start-up crofters Lynn Cassells and Sandra Baer six hard years before...

Scotland is arguably one of the best places in the world to grow barley, but that’s not the only reason whisky distillers – and brewers - choose it for production, says Peter Nelson, Operations Director at The Glenmorangie Company. “Malting barley grown in Scotland is...

Countries encompassing the alphabet - from Australia to Zambia - will be represented at the 30th Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth (RASC) Conference. The event, which is being hosted in Scotland, was founded in 1957 by the late Duke of Edinburgh Prince...

Scotland’s apprentice butchers are benefiting from a focus on innovation provided through the Scotch Butchers Club, run by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS). It recently partnered with industry leaders to provide learning and development opportunities for 24 apprentice...

With relentless rain, endless mud and peak lambing and calving season testing physical and mental resilience, Quality Meat Scotland and farming charity, RSABI, are reminding farmers of the role of good food in maintaining both physical and mental well-being....

By Jane Craigie Rural and agrifood businesses desire to tell their stories has led to two new appointments at a sector-specialist communications agency. Katie Insch has an interesting backstory, leaving home as a teenager to work for the Royal Household at both...

The topic of diet and nutrition has always attracted a polarised debate – one day something is healthy to eat, the next it’s not. One of the foods most affected by this is red meat. But now the tide seems to be turning. A new study published in the highly respected...

Appreciating “blue space”, a body of water that you can sit and look at, and taking time out of the busy farming day, is something East Lothian Farmer Stuart McNicol only knows too well. Since October, he has committed to jumping in a sauna two to three times per week...

Statement from Neil Wilson, Executive Director of the Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers in Scotland (IAAS). IAAS would like to remind customers of Scottish auction markets about the need for vet attestation numbers to accompany non-assured prime livestock if...

Scotch Beef is now high fashion in Milan after Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) relaunched the Scotch Beef Club in Italy, focussing on increasing exports to this high-profile, premium market. To celebrate the relaunch, an audience of leading foodservice stakeholders in the...

Scottish consumers are still very much in love with the humble banger - last year the Scottish sausage market grew by more than 14% (Source: Kantar) - and a new brand of sausage has been launched to take advantage of this double digit growth. Scotland's biggest pork...

After some downward pressure at the start of 2024, the GB Standard Pig Price (SPP) pig price has been trending relatively stable in February and March. However, there have been some signs of seasonal increase when the lightest and heaviest pigs are removed from the...

IAAS is giving a lukewarm welcome to the eventual release of new conditionality measures as part of the Agricultural Reform Route Map on Tuesday 26th March. Specifically, it was helpful to hear exactly how the Government proposes to add conditions to the Scottish...

Browns Food Group has welcomed Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal to commemorate the official opening of the company's upgraded and extended facilities with an ambitious vision to achieve £100 million of retail sales of Specially Selected Pork by 2030. HRH The...

A farmer’s daughter and former P.E teacher has strengthened the Farmstrong Scotland team by taking on the role of Programme Co-ordinator. Anna Dunlop and her family farm beef cattle and sheep in Annan, Dumfriesshire, however, her passion for farming stems from her...

IAAS would like to remind all vendors using Scottish auction marts to sell their livestock, that the sale of pregnant animals through the prime and cull rings is not allowed. This is in breach of animal health and welfare regulations. We have had some recent incidents...

With scanning results looking good this year on many of Scotland’s sheep farms, nutrition expert, Calum Littlejohn of East Coast Viners, is urging farmers to focus on quality feeding over the next few weeks to maximise healthy and straight forward lambing. “Many are...

The latest figures from the Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers in Scotland (IAAS) show a positive year for livestock markets in Scotland with increased throughput and prices across every class in the 2023 financial year. Totalling a turnover of £664.5m, the...

Experts have used research and data to show sheep farmers’ labour demands and costs can be reduced at the same time as improving work life balance by following some simple steps. Working smarter was the take-home message from a webinar entitled ‘Reducing Flock Input...

Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2024, running from March 4th to March 8th, is poised to celebrate the invaluable contributions of apprenticeships to individuals, employers, and Scotland's economy. The annual event serves as a platform to champion the merits of work-based...

Celebrating - and safeguarding the future - of the UK-grown carrot is behind the decision to hold a National Carrot Day on 3 October 2024. Chair of the British Carrot Growers Association (BCGA) and York-based carrot farmer Rodger Hobson says: “It’s time to make a bit...

Rules coming into force this year restrict the use of uninhibited urea COFCO and Velcourt trials showed Limus protected granular urea performed at least as well as ammonium nitrate (AN) and better than untreated urea Limus protected urea increases nitrogen recovery...

Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork will benefit from a record-breaking £22.9 million in new export business opportunities as a result of Quality Meat Scotland’s (QMS) attendance at last October’s Anuga trade show.  The German event forms a key part...

After a firm end to 2023, the lamb market has risen further, reaching record levels for the time of year. This month, hoggs have averaged well above 300p/kg lwt at Scottish marts, and averaged around 315p/kg in the second and third weeks of February. Price rises have...

Farmer Tom Martin - founder of the hugely successful Farmer Time project - has revealed how he would never have launched the initiative if it hadn’t been for the “jump start, leg up and inspiration” he received at a commonwealth agricultural conference eight years...

Grassland management and natural aids to worm control can hold a key to keeping costs down, a webinar entitled Reducing Flock Input was told. The online audience at the event, organised by SAC Consulting, part of Scotland’s Rural College, learnt how proactive pasture...

Now is the time to look ahead to managing this year’s silage quality, advises dairy expert, Lorna MacPherson, at SAC Consulting, to reduce input costs as well as the farm’s environmental footprint. Lorna is part of the Farming for a Better Climate initiative run by...

I am very honoured to have been elected chair of Scottish Quality Crops (SQC) at our AGM on 25th January, and I would like to acknowledge the service that Andrew Moir, our previous chair, has given over the last eight years. I take over at a time of significant change...

East Coast Viners, the north-east livestock nutrition company, and sister company, game feed supplier, Spratt’s, this weekend handed over £11,000 to the Scottish Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) at its Dyce base. The money has been raised over the last 12 months by the...

“The hogg trade is flying at the moment, about 80p/kg up on the year and there’s potentially good prices for those with hoggs still to finish,” says Calum Littlejohn, livestock nutritionist at East Coast Viners. “With so many farming costs high at the moment, it can...

A leader in the field of carbon calculation has hailed DEFRA’s long-awaited Harmonisation report as an “important catalyst” to improve consistency when it comes to tackling agriculture’s carbon footprint. Farmers first complaint when it comes to taking part in carbon...

A new partnership between The MacRobert Trust and Inclusive Farm will provide people with disabilities, additional needs or difference, a new route into agriculture. Through the provision of land and buildings by The MacRobert Trust in Tarland, Aberdeenshire, a new...

Variability is going to be the cause of much head scratching for growers and agronomists this year. Winter wheat crops are showing variability between fields, crops, and within stands and this coupled with differences in leaf layer emergence, which NIAB have recently...

Beef and sheep farmers across Scotland are now being better equipped to understand and meet market demands through a workshop organised by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS). These workshops, the most recent held at Woodhead Brothers in Turriff, aim to provide farmers with...

Generations of shepherds have wondered how to best deal with triplet lambs and research from SAC Consulting, part of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), is taking the trial and error out of rearing them. A healthy turnout from Scotland’s sheep farming community joined a...

Brown’s Food Group – Scotland’s biggest pork producer -  links tradition and innovation to launch new sausage range showcasing Scottish pork Promoting Specially Selected Pork is at the heart of The Kilted Pork Company brand of sausages which has just been rolled out...

The UK’s leading agricultural business event, AgriScot, has changed its date, bringing the event forward by one week to 13 November. The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS) and AgriScot have been working in partnership for a number of years....

Routine testing of bull fertility is an essential but often overlooked aspect of suckler herd profitability. Yet with funding available, Beef Specialist, Sarah Balfour, is urging beef farmers to be on the front foot this season. Suckler herd performance relies on...

Following the changes at the start of the year in the reporting and publishing of auction market livestock prices across Great Britain, the Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers in Scotland (IAAS) is pleased to announce that it has extended its relationship with...

Find your match at the Roxburghshire Monitor Farm winter meeting. As part of the Roxburghshire Monitor Farm project, the farming community is invited to a panel discussion evening, about farming agreements, being held at the Buccleuch Arms in St. Boswells on Wednesday...

Farmers are encouraged to book now for a practical meeting on body condition scoring, cattle handling and recording at the Strathspey Monitor Farm. Livestock behaviour expert Professor Simon Turner from SRUC will be the key speaker at the event at Auchernack Farm,...

Team Scotland - Perth-based father and son butchery team Richard and Ben Megahy – have triumphed at the Four Nations Butchers Tournament in Ireland. They saw off hot competition from leading butchers from England, Northern Ireland and Ireland in the contest, with...

John and David Andrew, the South Ayrshire Monitor Farmers are welcoming the Ayrshire farming community to an on-farm event, at their Rowantson Farm, on Thursday 22 February. The meeting will focus on managing sheep lameness, feeding root crops, and the benefits of...

More than 75 farmers attended day of discussions and practical demonstrations at United Auctions in Stirling to find out what farm management software and technology is right for their farming business. Organised by Monitor Farm Scotland in partnership with the...

Consumer spending on fresh red meat in Great Britain surged to a record £656.2 million in the four weeks leading up to Christmas 2023, marking a significant 9.6% increase compared to the previous year, according to data from Nielsen. This remarkable growth defied the...

Technology for managing flock performance is continually evolving and Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), in conjunction with Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), is offering Scottish sheep breeders an opportunity to increase genetic gain, improving the productivity and...

Five young Scottish auctioneers have graduated with a respected career qualification from Harper Adams University. Jenna Ballantyne, Amy Haddow and Nick Woodmass of Lawrie & Symington and James Scott and Andrew Weir of United Auctions completed their Certificate...

A recent survey conducted as part of a combined ABP and ASDA initiative, highlights the beneficial work that British farmers are accomplishing to boost farmland biodiversity. In total, 250 farmers from a wide geographical spread and farm size responded to the...

Fife arable farmer, John Hutcheson, has been appointed the new Chair of the Board for Scottish Quality Crops (SQC), Scotland’s quality assurance scheme for combinable crops, alongside new Vice Chair Mark McCallum. John farms an extensive arable unit, growing cereals...

Being much more specific about recording lamb losses at one of Scotland’s Monitor Farms has prompted an innovative new lambing health project. With lambing being one of the busiest and intensive periods on a livestock farm, there often isn’t time to take stock of what...

A Perth-based father and son team are set to represent Scotland at the Four Nations Butchers tournament in Ireland this weekend (28 January). The highly competitive battle will see the pair prepare, craft and present a range of 40-50 products and create a retail...

Over the festive period and into the first fortnight of 2024 the beef market has remained relatively stable, according to the latest market commentary from Quality Meat Scotland (QMS). R4L steer prices have generally been slightly above the £5/kg threshold in recent...

Bruce Irvine, the Banff and Buchan Monitor Farmer is welcoming North East farmers to an on-farm event on Wednesday 31 January. The meeting will focus on how small changes, using readily available farm information, can impact positively on late winter management of...

The growing success of Scotch Lamb for St Andrew’s Day owes to a collaborative approach between farmers, representative organisations, and rural businesses.  The lead up to the globally recognised celebration of Scotland’s patron saint last November saw initiatives to...

Adam Christie, Managing Director of Scottish Agronomy I read recently that the word of the year for 2023 was “hallucinate”. While this is a case of new uses for an established word, at times this year it was entirely appropriate as I thought I glimpsed blue sky...

Last week, Mairi Gougeon, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform, and Islands visited John and David Andrew on their South Ayrshire Monitor Farm, to hear about the positive work being achieved on Scottish farms through the Monitor Farm Programme. Ms Gougeon...

An online cattle sale that came about as a way of marketing stock during the covid pandemic is preparing for its fourth annual event. Farmers John and Fiona Scott came up with the way of selling their rams when coronavirus cast its shadow on traditional sales. It was...

In recent weeks, levy payers from Orkney to Lauder have been given the chance to hear how QMS plans to deliver its five-year strategy and make the country the choice for premium red meat. Over a dozen workshops have taken place across the country, bringing together...

Ewe lambs are central to profitable flock health, and sheep farmers should be thinking about them before they are even conceived and put them to the top of the flock hierarchy according to Consultant, Lorna Shaw. Her advice is just one of the many recommendations in a...

Making the switch to a Total Mixed Ration (TMR) has delivered significant benefits for flock health and efficiency at Lochfer Farm, of Inverdunning Farms, in Bridge of Allan. Since joining the farming operation five years ago, Jack Shaw has been making substantial...

Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) is launching a comprehensive and freely-available pack with latest facts plus shareable stats and videos highlighting the positives about red meat. It will build on the new TV and social media advertising campaign launching this January....

Livestock farmers are invited to a free day of discussions and practical demonstrations to find out what farm management software and technology is right for their farming business. The meeting on 23 January, at United Auctions, Stirling, is being organised by Monitor...

A highly respected journalist whose “wonderful” weekly newspaper columns had the ability to make his readers both laugh and cry will continue to help people even after his death from prostate cancer. Described as “a wonderful writer” and “a philosopher” by former...

A South-West dairy farmer has been trialling different rates of slurry and artificial fertiliser in silage fields to see how he can optimise yields and reduce costs. With input prices remaining high, John Kerr at Woodhead Farm in Ayrshire wanted to see if he could...

Leading animal nutrition specialists and feed mill, East Coast Viners is pleased to welcome trainee ruminant nutritionist Rebecca Bennett as it expands its team. A recent graduate of Harper Adams University, Rebecca brings with her broad practical on-farm experience...

One of London’s most talked about new places to eat has credited the Scotch beef it serves for helping win rave reviews. Michelin-starred chefs and top food critics have been some of the first to book a table at The Devonshire, tucked away in central London behind...

Tickets have gone on sale for an international agricultural conference with Royal roots being hosted in Scotland. The Princess Royal is patron of the 30th Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth (RASC) Conference, an organisation which was founded in 1957 by...

The start up behind a new AI-based forecasting tool for the soft fruit industry was one of just 13 businesses selected from across the UK to showcase innovation and investment opportunity to the world’s leading financiers. FruitCast, which uses imagery and data to...

With a commitment to classroom and on-farm education, BASF has directly supported more than five thousand children in 2023 by providing resources and attending events, aimed at the next generation. In collaboration with industry partners, the company is passionate...

Beef and lamb farmers are invited to a series of Scottish Meat the Market workshops. Organised by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), the events aim to give beef and lamb producers greater industry knowledge about target specifications for finished animals in order to...

Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) Levy payers in the Campbeltown area are being given the chance to hear how the organisation plans to deliver its five-year strategy and make the country the choice for premium red meat. The event is part of a series of regional workshops...

LiveScot, the prestigious Scottish National Fatstock Club livestock event held at Lanark showcased the Royal Smithfield Club Beef Ribs & Saddle of Lamb competitions. Entries were judged by Dan Gilmour from Gilmour Butchers and the event was supported by Quality...

Lamb took centre stage at the Scottish Parliament as part of Lamb for St Andrew’s Day, an initiative to encourage people across Scotland to celebrate with Scotch Lamb on the patron saint’s day. Scotch Lamb was served, and sold out, in the canteen for Members of...

A partnership between Simpsons Malt Limited and BASF Agricultural Solutions has been announced, marking the start of a unique carbon reduction and certification programme. Simpsons Malt is one of the largest, independent, family-owned malting companies in the world,...

On Shetland’s islands – 16 of which are inhabited - agriculture is a key component of the community and its economy. The livestock mart at Lerwick, run by Shetland Livestock Marketing Group, regularly fills with sheep and cattle from the island’s crofts and hills....

The Middle East could prove a lucrative new market for Scottish sheep producers, with First Minister Humza Yousaf among the delegates being served Scotch Lamb in Dubai to celebrate St Andrew’s Day. In a special COP 28 dinner organised by Scottish Development...

More than 120 attended the recent Monitor Farm Scotland lamb selection event at United Auctions Huntly, including a sizeable young contingent eager to build on their sheep farming skills. The evening began with breakout sessions from Michael Wilson, Livestock Buying...

Having the time to effectively use the information gathered from weighing cattle can be a challenge for farmers in Scotland, says Lorna MacPherson, consultant at SAC Consulting, part of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), but it can make the difference to profit margins...

Over 10,000 visitors and 240 trade stands filled the exhibition halls at the Royal Highland Showground at Ingliston last week (Wednesday 22 November) for the largest indoor winter farming event, AgriScot. As one of the strongest events yet, and with a record number of...

Preparing for lambing and ensuring it goes well is the focus of the Dumfries Monitor Farm winter meeting. All sheep producers are invited to the afternoon meeting ‘Are EWE ready for lambing?’ which will look at pre-lambing preparation and best practice at lambing for...

More than 100 individuals have now completed the OFC Inspire Programme, supporting their personal and business growth through skills development and networking. The success of the initiative, run by the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC), has resulted in career changes,...

Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) predicts that the organisation’s first ever Christmas TV campaign celebrating Scotch meat, will reach almost 90% of Scotland’s adult population when it runs on STV, Border TV and STV Player from today (Monday 20 November).    Scottish...

Farmer’s daughter Clare Dickson had been dreaming of finding a job that combined the rural sector with helping people once she was ready to return to work after having her young family. She says her appointment as Community Engagement Specialist for Farmstrong...

As the countdown to Christmas begins in earnest, there is firm demand for the available supply levels of beef, lamb and pork products in Scotland. Iain Macdonald, Market Intelligence Manager at Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), explains that, in early November, cattle,...