Perthshire farmer Ian Sands is to stand for election as vice-president of the National Farmers Union (NFU) Scotland.
He has pledged he would help lead the organisation in a “back to basics” approach to help ordinary farmers and stand up to critics of the industry.
Mr Sands said the union leadership should be less “Brexit obsessed” – as all the detailed work announced at recent roadshow meetings was just “guesswork”.
He said: “The Brexit focus has been overdone. The lobbying at Westminster and Holyrood is important and must continue, but until we have more detail on what’s happening we shouldn’t be putting so much work into detailed scenarios because anything we do just now is just guesswork.”
Mr Sands, who farms 375 acres of oilseed rape, wheat and barley in partnership at Townhead, Balbeggie, also contract-farms a substantially bigger acreage. He lets land for potatoes, carrots and vining peas.
He has been chairman of the union’s cereals committee for four years and vice-chairman for the previous three years.
He said the future direction of NFU Scotland had to include a stronger focus on standing up to environmental critics and other misinformation or sensationalism in the media.
“We need to get organised and start correcting the misinformation and we need to do that by harnessing the science that is out there,” he said.
“We are under huge pressure from animal rights and environmental groups and these issues shouldn’t be allowed to lie. We have not been vocal enough in our responses and we need to try harder.”
Although his current farming is exclusively arable, Mr Sands said he grew up on a dairy farm near Errol on the Carse of Gowrie and has kept both sheep and cattle, giving him an understanding of all farming sectors.
nnicolson@thecourier.co.uk
