Time to counter the doomsayers
‘Dr Lorna Cole, a senior ecologist with SRUC, certainly grabbed my attention as she quite firmly put the doomsayers back in their box, certainly as far as Scotland is concerned by showing just how good a diverse environment we have’
MOVING into the last week in February and looking to the Grampians from the comfort of my office and the snow which has been ever-present for some seven weeks now has melted away.
It’s been a few years since we have had consistent snow coverage on the hills and I’m feeling a little left out as we have had only ‘scuffing’s’ of the white stuff to date and seeing good skiing conditions in the Cairngorms.
Our rainfall for 2022 was 892mm, which is about average for this part of the world but the monthly stats are anything but average, with the only consistency being the inconsistency.
The reason for describing the above is that if we have plenty of snow and if it sticks in for the next few months and the lochs levels stay high well into summer, with a slow melt and hopefully if we get a summer like last year (which every arable farmer in Scotland is praying for), we may not have the requirement to have irrigators switched off and we will be able to fulfill their crops potential.
I say ‘fulfill potential’ but the elephant in the room is how they are going to afford the refrigeration costs postharvest with the cost of electricity at a completely unsustainable level and our Government and supermarkets not seeing that there will be every chance that producers will just not grow ‘normal’ hectares, preferring to take the first loss as their best loss, as capital will very quickly be eroded.
There are solutions available to growers who are able and willing to add more renewables to an existing site, but my understanding is that if a farmer wants to, for instance, double up solar to 450kv and use every kv on the premises and not export any and use batteries on excess produced, they are still precluded from investing as ‘lack of grid space’ is cited when permission is applied for.
So the question is: How can our Lords and Masters justify allowing energy providers to prevent good businesses from producing their own energy and be held to ransom on connection costs etc? The answer, of course, is that they can – a pretty good business model if you can wangle it !
Since my last piece, I could not have predicted that a Prime Ministers time in office would be compared to the shelf life of a lettuce! Clearly, the adults are back in the room and steadied the ship, or perhaps the money men have made the economic circumstances to allow one of their own to grasp the top job?
I do wonder in a week when we celebrated our national bard’s birth what he would think of the political situation both home and abroad?
Perhaps some indication would be in his short poem, ‘Poverty’
I’m no Burns expert so those more au fait with the subject please don’t be too hard on this simple soul. Also I am apolitical in all things politics.
It’s a fairly difficult time of year for most folks and I’m writing this piece quite early in the morning and pitch dark outside – it feels a bit like the speaker directly after lunch determined to keep the audience awake with insightful musings.
The good news is that in the time taken to read this you will have improved your mindset. Not necessarily with the content, but the very fact that reading for even a small amount of time is good for mental health and wellbeing.
With the ‘meeting season’ now in full swing, I have taken the opportunity to meet 100s of fellow farmers at the quite excellent and well attended SAOS/ SRUC roadshows and this interaction, which had been sadly lacking these past couple of years, had lifted my mood – until the Darvel score on Monday night!
I purposely attended all three roadshows (Perth, Borders, and Inverurie) with my SQC hat on, not only to promote the work that we are doing to give access to new and existing markets but just to be visible and questionable to fellow arable farmers. Some really good feedback for me and Teresa Dougall, our MD, to take back and act on.
[All presentations can be accessed here https://www.fas.scot/downloads/agronomy- winter- roadshow- 2023borders/]
The session directly after lunch delivered by the quite excellent Dr Lorna Cole, a senior ecologist with SRUC, certainly grabbed my attention as she quite firmly put the doomsayers back in their box, certainly as far as Scotland is concerned by showing just how good a diverse environment we have – describing rivers, hedges, trees and grass margins that are prevalent all over Scotland but showed pictures comparing East Lothian and North Dakota. Our wonderful mosaic of biodiversity, as opposed to a virtual desert.
Lorna had evidence-based outcomes to prove we are on track with this, but the NGOs have to give a negative view to pull in funds and shout about it in expensive adverts in the tabloids.
We have a fantastic story to tell along with the evidence to prove it – some of which I have described in earlier articles, let’s get off our backsides and do our own PR work ... no one else will!
It was also great to catch up with fellow columnist, Dr Keith Dawson, at the Borders event, who had to remind one presenter that it was not a ‘conflict’ in Ukraine, it was ‘war’. A sharp reminder to us all of the horrors still being endured not too far from our shores and not to be complacent.
Perhaps the last word should be from our bard who is revered in Russia and much quoted by Lincoln:
‘Man’s inhumanity to man, makes countless thousands mourn’
“In Politics if thou wouldst mix, And mean thy fortunes be; Bear this in mind- be deaf and blind, Let great folks hear and see.”