Upland farmers are overly exposed to Brexit, so a tailored package of Government support needs to be in place to keep the hills alive.

Pan-European measures are far too blunt and inappropriate for Scotland’s unique set-up. Look at the benefits of LFASS, which has evolved over years, compared to the clunky European Areas of Natural Constraint.

We should take some inspiration from the Burren Project in Ireland, on pages 14 and 15 this week.

This is a different approach that allows more focused measures to keep farming going and improve the environment.

This way local measures can maintain stock on the hills with locally appropriate rules: what suits Dumfries might be a world away from what suits Lewis.

Farm-gate and retail lamb price at odds

Lambs, which sold for over £100/head in the run-up to Easter, will now be on the shelf at discount rates. Retailers who were fighting to get customers for a big Easter shop were slashing lamb leg prices to £5/kg, which is around half the usual price. This cuts over £24 out of the retail value of a lamb.

I am not pleading sympathy for the retailer, as research shows they more than make up for what they lose on lamb through the rest of the bumper shop. However, it does go to show that short-term farm-price changes show little relation to end consumer prices. The price is most often fixed at how much or little the abattoir has to pay to fill their killing line for the week’s order.