Farmers and crofters attending Highland Sheep later this month will get the chance to hear from political parties ahead of the general election in June.
Event organisers, the National Sheep Association (NSA), have unveiled plans to hold a hustings at the biennial event, which takes place this year on May 31 at Kinnahaird Farm, near Strathpeffer.
“We are going to have a hustings type event in the middle of the day,” said NSA Scotland chairman John Fyall, who farms near Newmachar in Aberdeenshire.
“We want to keep it short and snappy, It also gives the NSA an opportunity to talk about the work we are doing.”
He said the main focus of the event, however, would be to provide a platform for sheep producers to do business and catch up with one another.
Chairman of the local organising committee Brenda Macintyre, of Findon Mains, Culbokie, Dingwall, said: “It’s probably the first time farmers have got out to mingle since lambing.”
She said a host of different demonstrations were planned for the event, including sheep scanning using SRUC’s mobile CT scanner and a look at the type of sheep the market required.
Dingwall butcher John Munro will supply three different lamb carcases to explain the difference between one that is ‘over-fat’, one which is ‘over-thin’ and one which is exactly what the market requires. They will then be butchered, prepared and cooked by award-winning chef Alan Craigie.
Mrs Macintyre added: “We will also have a wool spinning demonstration, crook-making and sheep dressing.”
Event organiser Euan Emslie said farmers and crofters still had time to get their entries in for a show and sale of ewe hoggs at the event.
The sale is open to ewe hoggs born in 2016 with either MV or non-MV accreditation. It will feature nine classifications – Mules, North Country Cheviot Hill type, North Country Cheviot Park type, Scottish Blackface, Suffolk, Texel, any other native breed, any other Continental breed, and any cross-bred.
The entry fee for each pair is £25 plus VAT and prize money is on offer for the first, second and third placing in each section plus an additional prize of £100 for the overall champion pair. The judge is Robert Paterson Jnr of Upper Auchenlay, Dunblane.
Visitors to this month’s event will also get the chance to tour the host farm which is run by Dorothy Clark and her daughter Amy Grant.
The 900-acre Kinnahrd Farm is home to a flock of 400 North Country Cheviot cross Mule and Texel cross ewes, and a herd of 160 suckler cows.
Mrs Grant said visitors will get the chance to see different groups of ewes and lambs and find out the results of a nutrition trial on the farm in conjunction with event sponsor Harbro.
