Farming

Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing has launched a new land matching service for the farming industry.

The Scottish Land Matching Service will initiate discussions between new entrants to farming and landowners. The service will provide unbiased guidance and support to both parties and is aimed at tackling the issues of an ageing farming population and lack of access to land for new entrants.

Find out about free assistance available for land managers considering the opportunities for woodland creation in this article from Scottish Forestry.

Significant opportunities exist for Land Managers to maximise their business productivity and sustainability by adding value to underproductive/marginal land through tree planting.

Find out about specialist advice available in this article from the Farm Advisory Service.

Ongoing uncertainty over future subsidies and an ever-changing economic and political landscape mean that now, more than ever, it is important that Scottish farmers, crofters and landowners have a clear understanding of the strength of their business resilience.

A group of farmers are working with SAC Consulting and a data company to develop distributed ledger, or blockchain, technology that will allow consumers to trace oats along the supply chain and be assured they are gluten free.

The University of Aberdeen have published a new A6 pocket guide to farmer safety critical non-technical skills.

Non-Technical Skills (NTS) are the social (teamwork, communication, leadership) and cognitive (situation awareness, decision-making, task management) skills that, in conjunction with technical and procedural knowledge can help farmers to work safely and effectively. 

The aims of the booklet are:

A Fife farmer is aiming to become Scotland's first producer of buffalo mozzarella with the help of a crowdfunding campaign.

Steve Mitchell from the Buffalo Farm, who has appeared on BBC's 'This Farming Life' has launched a 'Founders Club' crowdfunding campaign with an ambitious crowdfunding target of £800,000 to build a manufacturing facility, milking parlour and slurry store

Craighead Country Nursery, an Ayrshire LEADER funded project, has been nominated in the 'Diversification Innovator of the Year' category as a finalist in this year's Morrisons' British Farming Awards.