Four years of change: Monitor Farms look to the future at final meetings  

After four years of testing ideas, making changes and sharing the results with their local farming communities, Scotland’s nine Monitor Farms are preparing to host their final meetings of the current programme. The series will begin with the Argyll Monitor Farm on Islay on 25 September and travel across Scotland before concluding in Roxburghshire on 12 November.

The final meetings will focus on what has changed, what has made a difference and where each farming business goes next.

Beth Alexander, Monitor Farm Scotland Programme manager said: “Over the last four years we’ve seen our Monitor Farmers challenge themselves, try new approaches and make changes to their businesses.

“These final meetings are our opportunity to bring that journey together – to look at where each farm started, what has changed and, importantly, what they have learned along the way.

“Whether someone has followed their local Monitor Farm throughout the four years or has never attended a meeting before, I would really encourage them to come along. There should be something in every meeting that gets people talking, questioning and thinking about their own business.

“While these are the final meetings of this Monitor Farm programme, the conversations, relationships and changes it has created will continue well beyond them.”

Monitor Farm Scotland final meeting dates:

Argyll – Friday 25 September 

Strathspey – Friday 2 October 

Deeside – Wednesday 7 October 

South Ayrshire – Wednesday 28 October 

Banff and Buchan – Friday 30 October

East Lothian – Monday 2 November 

Dumfries – Tuesday 3 November 

Stirling – Wednesday 4 November 

Roxburgh – Thursday 12 November 

“Whether someone has followed their local Monitor Farm throughout the four years or has never attended a meeting before, I would really encourage them to come along. There should be something in every meeting that gets people talking, questioning and thinking about their own business.

“While these are the final meetings of this Monitor Farm programme, the conversations, relationships and changes it has created will continue well beyond them.”

Monitor Farm Scotland final meeting dates:

• Argyll – Friday 25 September 
• Strathspey – Friday 2 October 
• Deeside – Wednesday 7 October 
• South Ayrshire – Wednesday 28 October 
• Banff and Buchan – Friday 30 October
• East Lothian – Monday 2 November 
• Dumfries – Tuesday 3 November 
• Stirling – Wednesday 4 November 
• Roxburgh – Thursday 12 November