So let me paint a picture if I may ... it’s the week after Easter when the majority of our nation’s population have just had a few days off, to spend time with family, socialise with friends and maybe take a drive/walk in the country to see what the friendly farmers are up to with their cute lambs and shiny tractors.

We give a cheery wave as we always do, or try to do even though we are absolutely knackered following weeks of hard graft and console ourselves with the fact that they will be back to work like the rest of us soon and before we know it the Highland Show countdown clock will start ticking loud enough to be acknowledged through the lambing haze.

The weekend eventually passed and with only a brief conversation about the possibility of doing something else at this time of year if only we didn’t have sheep, all was going well ... until I got the phone call.

Now usually, if you get to March, you're clear of inspections for the season, but it would seem not. We had been selected for a wages inspection by the local department office which to be honest did come as a surprise.

Firstly, I didn’t realise they undertook such inspections and secondly, I just couldn’t fathom why an inspection during the busiest fortnight of our calendar year was deemed to be sensible.

After a brief discussion, it was obvious that the ‘Delay 'til May’ line wasn’t cutting it and I would need to break the news to Fiona, who during spring-time juggles one or two tasks.

This year being no different, she fed 15 people every evening; did a shift in the lambing shed; ran the office whilst we were one person down; took bookings for the holiday house and welcomed the guests; kept an eye on the kids; and looked after me – which is a fair task made worse by me putting my back out.

She also does the wages on monthly basis making sure our team are paid on time and appropriately, and therefore pulling details together for the inspection was definitely in her domain, and another job to add to the already lengthy list.

It took a bit of time and added stress at a time of year where we were already pushing ourselves beyond sensible physical and psychological limits. The resulting negative impact on us took a wee while to get over – it wasn’t pleasant and would have been handled with ease in a less stressful period.

READ MORE: Farmer's View: De-stressing with a week off

To be fair to those conducting the inspection, they were really good and realised that they were asking a lot of us at a high pressure time of year. They gave time to chat through issues over the phone and via email, with lessons learnt on both sides.

For us, there are a few things to tighten up around our procedures relating to employing staff. We need to get contracts in place and signed, keep track of hours for those on salaries and get our heads around the accommodation minefield.

The first two are simple. The latter may take some time. It seems we can’t give accommodation as part of a salary – we could charge employees for it, but only £1/week for a house but we could deduct £9.50/day for a caravan, confused, we certainly were?

We will, of course, take the necessary steps suggested thus ensuring we comply with legislation, but the process has made us think long and hard about our approach to employing people, especially students as we do.

Over the years we have employed dozens of placement year students and more than 50 travelling New Zealanders on their overseas experience. It seems to work as our team work hard and tend to play hard at the weekends, often socialising together in the evenings and at weekends.

They are given a lot of responsibility in a modern farming operation, are well remunerated, have access to the best advisors we can find, attend industry and CPD events, live in well-appointed houses with full freezers and leave us having grown in confidence and ability.

From a Wages Board point of view, what we do doesn’t quite fit with the various regulations but when you read through HMRC regulations they seem to make sense and are more amenable to developing those in the 16-23 bracket, which is where almost all of our team are.

As already articulated, developing young people is something we are passionate about and would like to carry on doing this. Maybe we need to put more structure around it and offer some sort of qualification?

With our links to New Zealand, we have come across those who have been to the likes of Smedley Station and Cadet Training Farm, Hawke's Bay which provides hands on farm training for those who have a passion for the industry and all it has to offer.

Otiwhiti Station – Agriculture Training School – is another worth having a look at which could potentially give us ideas on what we could offer in terms of training which delivers training which sets our farmers and crofters up for the future.

I know we have various further education options here. We have SRUC, where son James went; we have Harper Adams south of the Border where our daughter, Izzy, is; and we have various regional colleges and apprenticeships, but are they delivering what’s needed for the next generation and is there an opportunity to look at this in a different way?

Back to the Wages Board and I’m not for one minute saying things should change just for our benefit, but in this day and age when we are competing against other industries for staff, would it not make sense for us all to be on the same playing field?

Having had a good look at this over the past few weeks I see no need for us to have an Agricultural Wages Board. It is outdated and adds another layer of bureaucracy we just don’t need.

As the financial pressure tightens on many farms, we are looking at ways in which we can become more efficient but this shouldn’t stop at our farm gates. Those in the wider industry and, indeed, government need to look at ways in which they could become more efficient.

I’m sure savings could be made – from an environmental point of view, not printing the annual glossy 30-page document would save a small forest and the cash required to run the Wages Board could surely bring better return on investment if diverted elsewhere?