11th October 2025 The East Central Scotland Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers will be putting on quite a show at the Scottish Smallholder Festival on the 18th October. They will be the central attraction in the Fleece and Fibre Zone which will be upstairs in the Foyer of the Highland Hall. There will be […]
Sheep Judges 2025 The judges for the sheep competitions are as follows: CLASSES JUDGE Northern Short-tailed Euan Dunbar Icelandic Breed Suzanne Meikle Hebridean Breed David Braithwaite Any other breed not eligible elsewhere Linda McKendrick British Hill, Heath or Upland Linda McKendrick British Longwool Hilary Menzies British Down Breed […]
Following consultation with the Scottish Government and the Animal and Plant Health Agency, the organising team of the Festival have decided to follow the scientific advice and allow movement of animals from the north of England into Scotland for the Festival in October. The owners and keepers of the livestock concerned will be required to […]
On the commercial front, lets take a look at the companies signed up to be part of the main trade hall. Firstly, our main sponsors will all be there in force. The Scottish Government will have representatives from the Agriculture department including Poultry. Lantra, our gold sponsors, will be providing a focus for skills based training, and […]
The third seminar room is focused on providing information. The day starts with us taking a look at our wellbeing bank account with Alix Ritchie of Farmstrong Scotland. It has never been more important to understand the stresses and strains of being part of agriculture so if you want to understand some ways to help, […]
Seminars Preview There will be six venues within the event, three main seminar rooms, the Scottish Food Guide Theatre, the SRUC Theatre and the Handcrafts workshop. Today let’s focus on rooms one and two: Seminar room one will host the talks on Biodiversity and Innovation. You will hear all about fibre processing from Emma Duncan […]
01
Aug
Aug
This years’ Festival will see a dedicated class for Hebridean Sheep in association with the Breed Society. The Hebridean is a breed of small black sheep from Scotland, and are a multi-horned breed. Both ewes and rams may have two, four, or even more horns, and some ewes are occasionally polled. The two horned sheep […]
Recently the Chief Vet in Scotland published guidance to allow gatherings of “Galliformes” also known as Chickens, Pheasants and Turkeys. These would be permissible under a new general licence which had a range of conditions attached. The Festival has always been keen to run poultry shows; poultry is an integral part of smallholding and is […]
Following the latest updates from APHA and ScotGov, we have sadly had to take the decision to restrict entries for Sheep and Goat competitions and the Cattle and Alpaca showcases to those located in Scotland only. This brings us in line with all major shows in Scotland. If the situation changes we will review. Please […]
15
Jul
Jul
The English Goat has been a multiple winner in the Goat competition at the Festival for owner Sophie Agrell. The English Goat is a beautifully marked, deer-like goat bred to be a hardy multipurpose contributor to the smallholding. They produce enough milk to fulfil normal household needs on a minimum volume of concentrated feed. They […]