Eilidh MacPherson Editor

Happy New Year to one and all I hope it is a productive and successful year for everyone

We have a few interesting articles this issue, with the new Ayrshire Monitor Farmers – James and David Andrew of Rowanston, Maybole–up first on page 4

Young Dairy farmer, Andrew Taylor, who farms Lochhill in Robert Burns country is next in line. He is just back from a Young Farmer excursion to Canada and full of enthusiasm for implementing change on the family farm Page10

A day out at Eurosheep at Andrew Elliot’s Borders based farm –Blackhaugh was an interesting and informative event – see page 16

John Scott at Fearn farm writes about his Helmsman style Shorthorn sale I first came across this type of auction while writing for the NZ Farmer An Australian introduced this ’silent auction’ and helped set the first one up in NZ at Haldon Station in the MacKenzie Country in 1990 Ten years on I interviewed and attended the sale It gives buyers time to select, ponder on how much they are willing to spend, without the pressure of making snap descisions before the drop of a hammer

Several sheep shearing records have been broken since the last issue of this publication went to press and several more are in the dairy in the next six weeks See page 34 for details

With the Golden Shears World Championships coming to Scotland this year, we have caught up with a couple of the organising team to see how things are coming along Page 33 Chris McCullough, as ever has produced a fantastic latest machinery roundup, starting on page 42

And last but not least our travelling reporter, Petra Jacob writes about the Upper Bavarian cows coming home by boat in her piece on page 56