Oh to get back to show time

The rural and farming community has not been immune to the many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and one of the many joys of life we have largely had to forego is meeting face to face.

Not long after lockdown in the spring of this year the Royal Highland Show was one of the major events to admit defeat and cancel this year's show. It is the pinnacle of achievement, success and holidays for many farming families as well as associated businesses such as Galbraith. We have attended the Royal Highland Show with a trade stand for a number of years now and it forms a huge part of our connection to rural businesses and is enjoyed by everyone within the firm from graduate surveyors up to partners. Local shows have all followed suit and been cancelled and even the winter events such as AgriScot and Border Live Expo. Many show quality livestock have been purchased in the previous autumn and in the spring of this year to compete at the various shows and sadly they will pass their sell by date and never have the opportunity of gracing any show circuit. The day to day commercial trading of livestock through markets is hugely important to maintaining values and keeping the food supply chain going. Thankfully the auction markets up and down the country have taken the problems with Covid extremely seriously and have adopted very strict rules specific to the sales. In most instances this only allows potential purchasers to attend the sales with sellers having to say goodbye to their stock at the loading banks or farm gates. The abattoir and food processing sector has seen instances of Covid outbreaks not only domestically but across the world causing subsequent problems in food supply further down the line with short term shortages in certain sectors and conversely a backlog in the supply of livestock and fruit & veg produce on the other side. If anyone was ever in doubt as to the importance of the auction mart trading system then they should recall back to 2001 when foot & mouth disease devastated the UK farming livestock sector. It broke out at Longtown Mart on the Scottish/English border in March of that year and livestock sales by public auction never took place until the end of the year. Finished prime stock were sold direct from farm to abattoir and with no pricing mechanism available through the auction system the abattoirs took every opportunity to lower prices where they could which had a knock-on effect on an already crippled industry. Large gatherings such as Kelso Ram Sales have already been reorganised with the various auction companies hosting their allocated "rings" normally held at Kelso Show Field to their own premises. Early indications of the autumn sales are that prices are well in advance of 2019 but this is primarily down to increased demand from domestic markets partly due to the number of people remaining in the UK rather than travelling abroad. Galbraith has sponsored the Stirling Bull Sales for a number of years and