It was a day of mixed weather at the show this year, but the exhibits (both living and oily varieties) were good.
Firstly to the tractors. Enter stage left the Claas Axos 330. Part of the new axos range designed to replace the celtis tractors. Said to be sililar in appearance but many changes underneath such as the change to perkins engines. The cabs are spacious and stability is a watchword. There are 3 transmission options. For those into horsepower, this has 92 of them (powerful, but think how much free manure 92 horses would have provided!).
Next up comes the John Deere 6430. At about 125hp this will set you back over £50,000 although I'm told that you can get the kids model at good toyshops for under £50 which may be a better bet. If you fancy a bit of weightlifting practice this one weighs in at 4535Kg.
Or maybe New Holland is your cup of tea in which case what about the T6020 at 110hp. With up to 45 gallons in the tank I hope I'm not behind you in the petrol station queue ! (yes, before someone says it I know you don't fill up there).
Ans lastly what tractor listing would be complete without dear old massey ferg even if it is made in France. Who can resist the perkins diesel. Anyway this must be the best as it has the biggest model number !
OK, I hear you say, enough tractors already. While we are on the theme of biggest and best what about the biggest neep contest winner (and considerably cheaper than a tractor after all)
Oh yes, perhaps I had better mention the livestock too !
Limousin, Charolais, Simmental and Aberdeen Angus to be precise
Oh, yeah, I should have mentioned how complex tractor rear linkages are these days, come a long way from a simple towbar and chewing gum.
I can't be bothered to rotate the picture so simply lean your head to the left or look at the picture when lying in bed. After all this blog would be great for sending you to sleep.
Not many find a rear linkage panel cute so how about this little pony for the aaah factor
And last but not least (hey it cost me £8 to get in, you get all this for free remember !)
for all those who think that sheep are docile creatures easily scared and startled look in to the eyes of this hard nut who was giving me the "just try it sonny" look.
Bye for now, Brian
Today's blog is hot off the press from the sale earlier today. To give it it's proper title it was the special sale of rare and minority breeds of livestock and poultry including a show for Jacob and Ryeland sheep beforehand. Nice catchy title guys !
Whatever you wish to call it there were plenty of people (I estimate 300 at its peak) in the main ring
There were a similar number in the "Exchange" (= large metal shed, imagine B&Q without the shelving), to see the poultry sale.
What I know about poultry you could write on a quail's feet and still have some room left but I did like the silkies, the terns, and the quails (which drew the biggest crowd possibly). There were about 700 cages-worth for sale so something for almost all tastes. The quail chicks were another highlight as they frequently escaped from their cages and sped around the place creating mayhem. The unhatched quail eggs were both less mobile and considerably cheaper at about £3 a dozen compared to £10 each for the chicks.
First off in the main ring were some much bigger animals namely the horses and ponies, and the prices seemed very reasonable to the untrained eye.
One horse really got to the heart of sales such as these. Obviously at such a "do" the majority of purchesers are hobby farmers or smallholders or whatever term you want to use. Such persons (and yes I include myself here) maintain a careful balance between the world of the commercial farmer on one hand and the keeper of pets on the other. The horse in question brought out this balalce perfectly. Upon entering the ring it decided to have a good old roll in the sawdust on it's back like a dog wanting it's tummy tickling. Those in the pet camp brought out an audible "aaaah" in an "isn't that cute" kind of a way (if you made that noise at a usual weekly primestock sale at Thainstone you would get some very queer looks!) . At the same time you could hear those with more commercial leanings drawing breath and thinking about the excess of parasites which might prompt such a rolling about.
As I might have mentioned in previous posts I'm a bit of a sheep fan and so it was good to see so many on display. In terms of quantity there were obviously quite a few jacobs and around 50 ryelands because of the show (as an ex keeper of ryelands myself they were good to see and brought back many good memories too). There were also plenty of hebridean and other miracle jumpers like the soay.
It was also good to see a few examples of another breed we used to keep, Balwen welsh mountain. I was surprised the very rare castlemilk moorits were so cheap, many fetching only around £20 a head. There were some other bargain basement sheep even cheaper at about £10 which would hardly buy you a can of beer and a pizza these days. My votes on the day went to the herdwicks and the badger faced.
The whole event lasted for over five hours, which was bad news if you wanted one of the (only two) donkeys which came on last in the main ring. By then there were only about 30 people around and so it's very much harder to get a good price then rather than earlier in the day. In other parts there were the usual sales of tack, poultry equipment and some items from yesteryear which i'm sure did very useful jobs but I certainly didn't recognise many.
All in all a very good day. The queue to pay was pretty impressive but I expect most will have made it to the front by midnight. Those waiting might have seem the property adverts alongside the queue with prices for grade 3b agricultural land (="moderate") at about £7,000 per hectare (or £3,000 per acre if you still work in "old money").
Anyway, as christmas is only about 15 weeks away here's a reminder of what snow looks like, and frodo the ram.
cheers, Brian
As the Rare Breeds sale at Thainstone Mart has been postponed for a few days this post comes instead from the beauty of the Moray Firth Coast. First stop was Portsoy, a pretty little traditional fishing village with steep streets leading down to the harbour area. On occasions the place is buzzing with sailing craft and visitors due to some special event or other, but as lot of the real charm comes out on quieter days
Most of the fishing is gone these days of course but there are still a few reminders around of the few who presevere with earning a living from the sea
For some there is nothing better than walking along the seafront and looking at the stones and shells with their many shapes, colours and textures.
Others prefer to simply watch the boats bobbing in the harbours like Banff and MacDuff just further down the coast heading East.
In fact there is something for everyone. Here ends the commercial break sponsored by the Moray firth Tourist Association !
Cheers
Brian
Hi again. 
Many people wrongly assume that the National Trust only has a set of crumbly old castles in its portfolio, but there are also some very beautiful gardens too for those who like their outdoors. Many of the castles and grand country mansions have their own gardens of course but Pitmedden is an example of a garden run by NTS which is set on its own. 
I'm no expert on plantlife, or much else for that matter, but I know there are some very nice colours and textures and smells to excite the senses.
There are a fair number of stone features and buildings as well as a pond, fountain and so on
So I would encourage you all to pay a visit sometime to a gardens near you and i'm not even on commission (sadly).
Bye for now. Hopefully my next post will be from a nearby auction mart.
The Keith show took place on a sunday and monday earlier this month. The weather was fairly good with a few black clouds (not quite as dark as the sunset above but getting close to it on occasions) and just a spot or two of rain. There was a new show secretary this year who must have ben pretty pleased with how it all went. You don't realise how many people are needed to set up such an event with 60 on the committee as well as the office holders and stewards. A lot of work behind the scenes. If you've ever walked around the trade stands and wondered how much it costs to run a stall yourself, well at this show a pitch of about 20ft by 20ft would cost you from about £120 to £160 depending on location. You pay more for stuff like electricity supply on top of that. They make a special effort here to help those exhibiting for the first time which is good to see. To enter a sheep for example would only cost you £4 or half that if you were a member, and the overall show champ gets about £100, plus trophy, sash and prestige. The grand parade of livestock was very good. As was some of the hardware on display 
The crowd were very impressed by the visiting jamaican steel band who got a round of applause when they played a selection of scottish favourites including "Flower of Scotland".
There was a good educational stand which gave you the chance to grind your own corn by hand and had a cute calf (amongst other animals) outside to attract the youngsters 
Some of the sheep on display were quite good too with a variety of hairstyles and attitudes.
but perhaps pride of place should go to the "blackies"
Thats all for now, so i'll end with a picture celebrating all the hard work which goes into harvesting at this time of year, bye for now
This year's 144th show at Turriff (NE Scotland) was blessed by slightly better weather than last year. In 2007 the show was decimated first by Foot and mouth restrictions and then by torrential rain on the sunday evening. Sure, there was plenty of rain this year too and the littlest ones had plenty of puddles to splash in but at least we left the showground without needing a tractor tow ! It's the biggest 2 day agricultural show in Scotland with around 40,000 visitors.
This year included special events for Aberdeen Angus Cattle (national show) and Charollais sheep (special anniversary). 
There were the usual wide range of trade stalls with 20 for agricultural machinery and around 50 offering agricultural supplies and services. There were one ore two unusual touches including jousting
and some surprisingly approachable husky dogs.
The younger fraternity were encouraged by free entry for the under 14's and the usual selection of rides. On the Sunday there had been around 700 horses and ponies and 500 dogs. Today, monday, around 400 cattle, 450 sheep, 50 clydesdales
and 250 poultry entries. There was a forresty related area with the giant woodchipping machine drawing a large crowd.
The cute and cuddly vote was probably won by the highland calf.
Less cuddly was the impressive jacob sheep with its magnificent horns. The general standard of livestock and stockmanship was very good I thought. 
The woman stood next to me said this was a very impressive display of backsides. I'm not sure if she was referring to the sheep or the handlers ! 
Altogether a good day out. Next posting will probably be after the Keith Show next week, stay posted !
It is 29th July 2008 although you would think it was autumn as the weather outside is more typical of the mellow fruitfulness misty type scenes of september. As befits rural scotland the midges are sharpening their teeth ready to attach onto any unsuspecting passer by who may innocently suspect that a mere squirt of bug spray might deter them. This blog will have an unashamed bias towards all things sheep i'm aftaid although there will be general rural life issues covered too. There will be some reports from the local livestock mart. There will be some airing of wider rural issues. There will be a great chance for me to have a good old moan and put the world to rights. There will be good opportunities to show what a poor photographer I am with the weekly picture at the end of each post. Hope you enjoy the ride
Cheers, Brian
