News from the field

Image courtesy of ORganic Rapeseed oil

Rural Britain is a wonderful assortment of farms, estates, hamlets, villages, forests and moors, lochs and valleys. Our stunning scenery, close communities and wonderful rural businesses provide an idyllic lifestyle for many, but rural life can also throw up some pretty unique challenges.

The Rural Scene (the Scene & Herd rural blog and news updates) looks at what’s new, what’s relevant, what’s tasty, what’s fun and what’s challenging about life in the Great British Countryside. We offer an insider insight into rural Britain, highlighting some of the exceptional people, businesses and innovations we believe that everybody should know about.

Creativity for Non-Creatives

Do you think of yourself as unimaginative? Are you struggling to come up with new ideas? As Charles Darwin famously said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change.” The last couple of years have certainly shown that to be true. We've been impressed by the way enterprising people came up with creative solutions to various business problems. But what if you are not naturally creative? Can you still pivot your business?

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Two New Appointments at the Scottish Organic Producers Association (SOPA)

This month two new faces join the SOPA team based in Scotland. Jo Barron (Member Services Co-ordinator – Policy Lead) and Becky MacAngus (Member Services Co-ordinator- Comms Lead) have been appointed to boost the current team of Debs Roberts and Joanna Sinclair and work closely with the SOPA Membership.

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OnFARM Podcast: Rural Scotland's two moving tributes to Her Majesty the Queen

Rodney Blackhall and Emma Cheape describe how they both - independently of each other - organised moving rural tributes to Her Majesty the Queen as she was carried by cortège from Balmoral to Edinburgh. Rodney brought together over 40 tractors to stand guard as the convoy passed through Aberdeenshire. Down the road in Perthshire, Emma was standing by with over 30 riders on horseback.

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September 2022

Back in our March 2020 newsletter, we included Louisa May Alcott's famous quotation "I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship." That newsletter was in response to the country being plunged into lockdown. Now, another storm is brewing in the shape of the cost of living crisis. We can't control the weather any more than we can control the price of fuel but there are some things we can control, for example, our effort, attitude and the choices we make.

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‍Consistently Reliable, Colourblind Guidance Covers UK

‍EssentialsNetRTK, the highly accurate signal correction network for tractor and implement guidance systems is being lauded by farming users as the most reliable system of its kind. Graham Ralston, a Director of Angus-based SoilEssentials, the firm behind EssentialsNetRTK explains more:“We are delighted with the feedback we received from a survey of users of our EssentialsNetRTK; 100% of them rated it as ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’.”

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