It’s hard not to make this read like an obituary. But it is a swansong. After 46 years at The Scottish Farmer – starting as a cub reporter back in February, 1977 – I have retired to a less frenetic life.

It has been the most fantastic industry to work in and with. The Scottish Farmer, though, is not our newspaper … it is yours and will remain so. Our readers have always shaped the future of this great newspaper, which we think is the oldest weekly agricultural publication in the world.

In my time, we have all comes through the nightmare of BSE – and the doomsayers were mostly wrong – then we had foot and mouth; we’ve had good weather, bad weather and downright horrendous weather. But the one thing that shines through – bar the sun sometimes – has been the sheer professionalism of modern farming.

New technology and artificial intelligence (AI to us means something totally different) is allowing farmers something they have never had before and that is a real time analysis of their business at any given time. It has also allowed a physical examination of everything from growing crops, to predictable outcomes in livestock performance and the good news is, this technology is expanding exponentially.

Luckily, farming minds have the ability to cut through the crap and assess which outcomes are best for them and their businesses. While technology undoubtedly does and will play an increasing role in modern agriculture, it is good that old-fashioned hard work and down to earth savvy still holds sway.

What has become apparent in my last five decades is that agriculture’s political clout has been diminished. That’s partly because it has become a complicated industry to understand but mostly because politicians do not want to understand it. Rather than take a long view of where the industry might go, politicos seem content to go for the quick fix and go with the rhetoric served up by desktop warriors, rather than listen to the people who know and who can make things happen for rural Scotland.

The sad thing is, that this is having serious implications for the mental health well-being of the entire industry and not just the well-publicised impact it is having on individuals. What we know for certain is, that this is knocking the confidence of an industry that makes up a huge part of the socio and economic fabric of Scotland and which has a history of being the most resilient of all in the face of adversity.

What I can say with some certainty is, that it is time for the entire rural sector to come together and celebrate the very many positives that it has, instead of being cowed by political inertia. It continues to deliver what it says on the tin and in many cases what is physically in the tin. And it does so in a sustained and reliable fashion.

That’s why it is important for The Scottish Farmer, in conjunction with our partners, RHASS and AgriScot, to deliver the Scottish Agriculture Awards at our inaugural event on October 26, in Glasgow. This industry is worth shouting about and that’s what we intend to do … as we have always done.

Ken Fletcher