Being sold a turkey?

No turkeys for Christmas! Now that's a headline that might catch the public imagination, not to mention put a few pence per kilo on the price of a bird to those who still have product left to hit the market.

Is this a new renaissance of farmer power trying to claw back some control of the market after years of being made the whipping boy of the food chain? Time will tell, but there is a sense that farming is beginning a collective push back on many fronts, not the least of which is on the fundamentally crucial Agriculture Bill Scotland.

NFU Scotland boldly went where they had feared to tread until recently by telling the Scottish Government that the only way to deliver food on a plate and look after the environment was their way, or no way. So, they're hammering on the door ... but is anyone listening to anything other than the single issue brigade?

Also rallying behind the industry this week was none other than the UK's retired chief 'spook', former MI5 Director General, the Baroness Manningham Buller, who delivered the Sir Henry Plumb lecture to the NFU in England. Food security was also fundamental to national security she argued and that would be met by some satisfaction by industry lobbyists who have been banging on about that for months (if not years).

So, maybe, just maybe, the industry will not have to 'turn cold turkey' when the Scottish Ag Bill comes to fruition! But then again, we're getting used being 'sold a turkey' – Definition: A production, especially in film or theatre, that fails spectacularly; a flop. Is Holyrood a theatre?

Mail strikes –

sorry again!

Once again we find ourselves having to apologise – through no fault of our own – for the late arrival of The Scottish Farmer to the majority of our readers who buy the paper by subscription. Last week, the November 26 issue was days late because of a strike by Royal Mail workers across the weekend and it looks likely there will remain disruption to our normal service at least until Christmas.

We can only do our best to mitigate these circumstances and show understanding to those who miss their weekly dose of 'The Farmer'. One of the ways we are doing this is to give subscribers free access to our excellent on-line version of The SF and all of you should have received a code that would allow access to this.

Please make the fullest use of it and, who knows you may even get to like that method of delivery. To that end, keep an eye out of our excellent digital subscription deals that we will be pushing in the coming weeks.

Thank you for remaining loyal to our brand. It means a lot and hopefully the mail strikes will be resolved soon. The digital edition will be updated each week for print subscribers at the following link while strike action is happening: https://www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk/printsubscribers/