Arable Farmer Focus: Neil Thomson enjoys farming banter
I’m writing this column after spending a pleasant evening at the post-AGM dinner of the local NFU Scotland branch.
There was good banter with a couple of friends who like to dabble in a bit of “muck and mystery” about their soils, teasing them about their close affiliations to those in “other worlds”. But they are not fools, and will inevitably have the last laugh when their land outperforms all of us who mock.
However, more worrying, was the lack of people at the meeting. The local branch is struggling to get people to attend meetings, let alone get anybody to join the committee.
One of the problems is that a lot of the membership, and often the best candidates for office, are too busy running their businesses to be able to spend the time required. I cannot and do not blame them; there is simply too much on their own plates without having more.
Another issue is the current structure of the NFUS, which had to rationalise itself about 10 years ago. The price of which was the loss of the Borders Area as a separate entity, with the creation of a larger body that included the Lothians – not that I have anything against anybody from that area – and the system that information was gathered and disseminated was changed. Maybe it is just apathy, but I do not think the system is working now. One member there tonight used to go to meetings that were mobbed in his former locality of Yorkshire and he cannot understand why it is not the same here.
A good party, hosted by well-known local Jock Bryce, celebrated the end of harvest. Our Bulgarian, Polish and Lithuanian friends were there and enjoyed learning some new skills that included the “Strip the Willow” and the “Gay Gordons”. Goodness knows what they made of it.
