'The issue of succession is just as pertinent for voluntary organisations as it is for farming businesses, with ever increasing regulations, costs and red tape requiring ever more investment of time and expertise and making it all just that bit harder'

It’s the end of August and to be honest I’m feeling pretty knackered.

The equation in my much anticipated and planned for work-life balance has been thrown out of kilter. I’m definitely feeling more like the Bhutanses marathon runner who finished an hour and a half behind the winner than the Slovenian wall climber who shot up a vertical slope in under eight seconds.

And why? It’s not because the farm has been manically busy, though recent lamb sales and sorting out ewes has contributed to it. It’s not because the cattle are causing extra work.

They are simply out grazing, enjoying the last week in with the bull, and moaning for a move to fresh grazing every few days. And the B&B has been less busy than usual, with some scheduled nights and weekends off.

No. These are not the cause of my lethargy. The main problem seems to be my inability to say ‘no’.

At the end of the busy summer show season, many across rural Scotland will empathise with my position. I have found myself on a number of boards and committees, some of which I enjoy and feel strongly about, and others which are simply a case of ‘well someone has to do it’.

The Sutherland Agricultural Show was held at the end of July. It is a wonderful and quite large event run by a small and dedicated group of volunteers, of which I am one. For us it unfortunately falls at a time when we are busy with silage and weaning lambs. Helping to bring the show together takes up a significant amount of time, and we spend the next few weeks catching up on those jobs neglected whilst focusing on the show. Add on top of that other meetings, committees, events and local dog trials and I feel I’ve been chasing my tail for the last few months.

So why do it? Why not just walk away? I have often contemplated this, when lying in bed in the middle of the night thinking about who I need to email and what information needs to go out. How much easier my life would be if I just said ‘no’ a little more often. But in the end, I have decided that these events ARE important and worth contributing to.

And thankfully the many other committee members and volunteers right across the country feel the same. So every summer our rural regions benefit from the enjoyment and solidarity that comes from farming communities coming together. These events also give us the important opportunity to showcase our industry to the non-farming public.

So this is not a whinge, looking for sympathy, but a shout out to all the volunteers out there who do so much to ensure important events and traditions continue. The shows, gala weeks, highland games, dog trials, rugby and sporting clubs, ploughing matches, tractor runs and young farmers events. Imagine our summers without them.

It is also a call to arms. The expression ‘many hands make light work’ has never been truer than when there are three large marquees to erect. Looking around at our own show volunteers, the average age is alarmingly high and they will be difficult to replace once they decide to hang up their hats. With much of the work being quite physical, we were certainly relieved to see the fresh faces of the Ross-Sutherland young farmers appear to help out (though arguably they were not so fresh the Sunday morning after the marquee dance).

Hopefully we have invested enough in our show and made things as welcoming and easy as possible that this next generation will gradually step up to more senior roles.

The issue of succession is just as pertinent for voluntary organisations as it is for farming businesses, with ever increasing regulations, costs and red tape requiring ever more investment of time and expertise and making it all just that bit harder.

As someone who is totally disinterested in showing – I can barely be bothered to brush my own hair little lone that of an animal, I know I’m not the first to observe that quite often those who most benefit from events, ie the show competitors, are not always the first to put their hand up to help. I briefly ran into a friend at the Highland Show who was dashing to the loo in between stewarding the main ring.

From what I can tell he spent much of his Highland Show ensuring the right animals and people were in the right place at the right time, whilst I tucked into beers and caught up with friends. A reminder that before you complain about ticket prices or event organization, it is worth remembering the time people give up to make these events happen.

My final word on the subject? If you enjoy a local event and would be sad to see it end, then please contact your local organising committee, get along to a meeting and volunteer some of your time. A task shared is a task halved.

Now that is off my chest, I’ll return to the status quo of a more positive outlook. At long last the sun has come out this week and it may be one of the best weeks of the summer. I think I can almost hear the combines across the Dornoch firth in Easter-Ross, firing up as they prepare to get stuck into harvest. Here’s hoping they get some decent weather and good yields.

Certainly it has been a good year to be a sheep farmer, particularly if you sold store lambs early. We were fortunate enough to not be affected by bad weather as we lambed in late April, so despite a cold summer the lambs grew well and our survival was very good. We sold most lambs privately as stores in early August, a few weeks after weaning and were pleased with the agreed price.

We run a fairly low input sheep system but try to optimize production so we are low cost, but med-high output. It’s always a balancing act finding the sweet spot but we’d classify this year as ‘successful’. We’re now trying to get ewes off farm to build grass covers for tupping and calf weaning. The cattle, as always, cause little hassle at this time of year, though keeping adequate feed in front of them has been a little more challenging this year as photosynthesis requires sunshine!

As for me, I’ve got some time off from B&B booked. I had initially planned to get away for a spell, but given the current level of my ‘well-being cup’, I’m taking Farmstrongs advice and staying home, catching up, topping up and hopefully enjoying a bit of decent weather.

Fingers crossed for an Indian Summer.