Peter Chapman

Very disappointed in his speech. Here is a Cabinet Secretary with no ideas for going forward for industry.

I hoped against hope, he would have something to say about what kind of support mechanism we will have post-Brexit. But again, he has come forward with the same old mantra: “It’s nothing to do with me, it is all Westminster’s fault and nobody will tell me anything” – and I don’t accept that.

I had a long meeting with 15 to 20 Perthshire farmers with Michael Gove last weekend. Michael Gove was absolutely clear that the responsibility for designing the scheme for support in Scottish agriculture is absolutely in Fergus Ewing’s Government’s court. He doesn’t want to get involved in that at all, he is designing a scheme for England and Scottish support mechanisms will be designed up here.

He was completely clear on that and he was also clear on the levels of funding which will be coming north of the border which has been at least until 2022 as we have had in the past.

Fergus Ewing’s assertion that he doesn’t know if he has pillar one money or pillar two money or LFASS money are wrong. That decisions is absolutely his. He will get the pot of money and he can spend it as he wishes.

So very disappointed and playing the blame game as usual, blaming Westminster. A man with no vision and no ideas is what I took out of his speech.

Peter Kennedy, Argyll and Islands region

Positives were the main parts when he said over his dead body would there be any rewilding in Scotland.

Bit disappointing that we are down to another loan payment for the LFASS. Whilst 90% is very appreciated, 100% would be nice. And there is still no sign of the IT problem being fixed.

Words are cheap – we need to see action.

Christopher Nicholson

What STFA have been involved in the last few months is the debate on sheep versus trees in the south borders. It was reassuring to see other stakeholders raise the same issue here at the conference. There is recognition from the Cabinet Secretary that it is a debate which needs to find a solution and it’s a debate that has so far been polarised and binary but there should be a middle ground which sees forestry and farming sit together and complement each other. The Cabinet Secretary offered that the Government is willing to listen and engage with stakeholders and that the position we are in at the moment is not very good. I think action will happen and hopefully the Government will engage with stakeholders on both sides of the debate. There is a position for forestry to fit with farming but what we are seeing of blanket planting of farms and key parts of farms is not going to complement agriculture.

Gordon McKilligan, North East region

I asked Fergus Ewing a question to see if there was some sort of plan for future support. The Scottish Government keeps saying they have not got enough information.

But they need to make contingency plans based on existing levels of support and possible options of delivery. I keep thinking it’s not impossible that talks could fail. We could be in a position where we need to look at options.

You can see how poor delivery can be with the current system as it’s overly complex. One of the things they have to look at with a new system is simple enough delivery and be able to be delivered on time.

We need to future plan. The age level of farmers. A lot of them are wondering what to do for their futures. Is there going to be continuing of family farms or share farming.

You want to get some sort of clues or options on the way forward.

Andrew McCornick, NFUS president

It’s very welcome to get the LFASS money announced. It’s a bit disappointing that we can’t get it through the normal channels. But to the people who have the weather issues, it’s a big positive. That, to me, was the main event of the whole thing. We need to find out more about the innovation and collaboration thing that he has announced today. I don’t know the details but I am sure we will pick up on that at some stage.

I think the discussion needs to be held on the assumption that funding is coming and we develop a policy from there.

Because that’s where NFU Scotland are coming from. Regardless of where we are at, we need to have a policy so we know what we are doing.

Kathy Peebles, National Sheep Association vice chair

It was a good speech. There are a lot of good points there. I would like to have seen more specifics for the red meat sector.

They have been talking about Scottish Development International which is fine.

They have a very wide remit and I would have liked to have seen something specifically for the red meat sector.