More important than the livestock judging, educating the public and letting off steam, the Highland Show offers a chance to meet like-minded farmers from across the country to share farming insight, and to then return home to take a fresh look at your fields.

The farming sector is often criticised for not collaborating and sharing information enough, but the show is a prime example of knowledge transfer going back 177 years.

Farming can be an isolating experience with fewer staff on farms. Those with reception will have managed to keep connected through the mobile, but there are many glens and howes with black spots.

While the phone has been a revolution in keeping farmers in touch, nothing beats meeting face-to-face communication.

Farms can be trying places, but to drive your business on you need to study other systems. Speaking to others allows you to better question your own farm.

The show is a chance to meet friends from hundreds of miles away where climate, soil and relief can give an entirely different perspective on making food.

It is vital for farmers to get out of the neighbourhood and see what they can learn from others.

Sticking at home and just watching your neighbour who has better acres, more machinery and less of an overdraft is likely to enrage rather than enlighten. Instead, you can pick up a snippet from a short discussion at the ringside, which you can try at home.

Only recently in Dumfries I was told of the benefits of duct tape on the horn buds of new calves after applying dehorning paste. The tape stops the mother licking off the paste for long enough for the paste to work. This has dramatically reduced the number of horned cattle.

Knowledge transfer doesn’t have to be at the wrong end of a long PowerPoint presentation.

But it can be over a coffee in the busy United Auctions tent, when you are plunked with a farmer from the other end of the country.

These chance encounters can give you a window into someone else’s business and how they get the most from their farm.

You don’t need to come prepared with the books from the accountant – and some of the figures you are told may seem a bit too good to be true – but, more often than not, farmers are happy to talk about the highs and lows of their enterprise.

The scientific world is built on peer review journals. Farmers are no different – only they don’t write it down.

Whether you’re speaking to a suckler farmer from Stranraer or a sheep breeder from Shetland, use the show to learn about other systems and how others overcome challenges. Speaking to people with an open mind is the first step to success.

So when looking at the judging or eyeing up some new equipment, don’t be afraid to ask the opinion of the person at your side: they might just give you the fresh angle you’ve been looking for.