The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Rosemary on January 14, 2011, 12:25:15 pm
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There's a thread running here about the Welsh Smallholder Show. Would there be a demand for similar here in Scotland?
If so, what would you want to see?
I contacted the company that runs GardeningScotland to see if they would expand it - this was 2 years ago - and they invited me in to meet htem and discuss. I was working for RHET and then moved here, so I didn't pursue it, but if there's a demand, I'd be happy to raise it again.
So, if you are in Scotland (or anywhere else for that matter) and would attend a smallholder show probably at Ingliston Showgound, please let me have your thoughts and I'll collate them and pass them on.
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I would certainly go, and to be honest I know a lot of other folk who would too if it was including gardening exhibits as well as smallholding ones. I think it would be a great success!
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thats a good idea but be carefull of the cost at ingliston they can be pricey
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I'd go to a smallholder show (and if there was the opportunity to show off my pigs then all the better ;))
What about Palacerigg as an alternative location to Ingliston ? Recently saved by TASers and all that ;) ;D ;D ;D
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we would go - maybe you can find a different venue? Perth, Fife? Might be cheaper... :&>
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I'm not planning to organise it :o I'm just gauging some opnion and then I'll contact the company that organises GardeningScotland and see if they are still interested in pursuing it.
Do smallholders go to GardeningScotland anyway or would smallholder exhibits (whatever you tell me you want) attract a new audience?
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I've never been to the gardening show, although I might do sometime but I would certainly go if it was combined with smallholding, and Palacerigg sounds a good idea if it's feasible. You could maybe suggest that too?
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if it was only gardening, I would not go :&>
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I've never been to Gardening Scotland, could be interested, but looked at how much it cost one year and was put off.
A smallholding show I might make an effort to go, but it would depand on where/ when it was, if it clashed with any other shows, if I could exhibit the goats (and to what level).
Beth
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id be interested, cattle and pigs ;D ;D
not too far away from aberdeenshire please :wave:
never been to gardening shows, not that fussed on that.
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As I mentioned on the other thread, I did approach the events organiser At RHAAS, following their winter fair, about having a smallholders show. This was because we had been asked to take our Hebridean Sheep Society stand to the winter fair, for a fee, but once there we found it was irrelevant to our breed, being all about commercial meat. The organiser seemed interested but it never went any further. This was in late 2009/early 2010.
I agree that entry costs to Ingliston are likely to be high, perhaps too high for smallholders. I did once go to the Gardening Show but I can't remember how much it cost to get in - but there were thousands and thousands of people there. However, I think it is more likely that a joint gardening and smallholders show is probably the best option.
As for what should be there - I can think of some things which I would like to see, for example machinery on a smallholding scale, such as various small tractor and implement dealers, small trailers, chainsaws, feed suppliers, buildings - in fact all the stuff they have at the big shows, but specialising in small versions suitable for small acreages plus for organic production. Dairying equipment, shearing, poultry housing and equipment. I think the beekeepers already go to the gardening show. SEERAD should be there too, animal health, ear tags manufacturers. Showing should of course be a part - I am not overly keen on showing but at events like that it really does highlight the different breeds and species, and might be the only place new smallholders could see the more unusual breeds. It would be nice too to have a proper craft bit - with the sort of real crafts that smallholders do, not just fancy stuff for retired ladies living in town with nothing else to do.
Whilst I like the idea of using Palacerigg as a venue I think that the practicalities would rule it out, and the size would eventually rstrict it. However, I do think that Palacerigg could host a rare breeds event.
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I have been once at the Gardening Scotland, and was put off as almost all the gardening was along the ornamental lines.... but it may have changed since.
However people in Scotland that are keen to show their livestock already suffer from the 13 day standstill, it would make another show difficult to fit in. Especially if you have got both sheep and goats going to different shows...
I also think Ingliston will be very expensive, and isn't the RHS moving soon away from there? Would a venue away from Edinburgh, maybe Stirlingshire or thereabouts be more likely to attract people from further North? Still within reach of motorways though. Diesel is unlikely to come down in price, and long journeys are really getting expensive now!
Also as far as I know there are no pig classes at any agricultural show in Scotland, and I would think that may be difficult to change. Something to do with diseases spreading I think.
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ang thainstone center would host this .last yerer we was un Happy that there was not sale dates for poultry erley we naw have march 19 th and may the 7th as well as dingwell its for rare and minority breeds off poultry also hatching eggs and equipment this could include the other as its all set up parking pens food etc so it would double up .iff eney members go to peterbrough fare same thing for smallholders
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in reply to anke posting the current standstill period can be reduced if you are showing
the RHS had plans to move (across the road) but this is on hold and are improving the current site
you are correct currently there are no show classes at Scottish shows nobody can say for certain why there are none disease is one high spirited showgoers letting the pigs out is another and lack of enthusiasm has also been mentioned
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Something else interesting to have at a Scottish Smallholder event would be working horses, ponies and donkeys, plus the type of equipment needed for working them on a small scale. Would that lend itself to competitions?
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I'd certainly be interested in visiting a show, but couldn't really justify a trip down to the central belt from where we are in the far northwest. We couldn't do the round trip in a day so would need to stay overnight, and so would need to organise not just accommodation but for someone to take care of our animals while we were away.
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I think it is likely that any show will have to be linked to another existing show like Gardening Scotland, so likely to be in the Central Belt, where the majority of population is and because it's, well, central.
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But where is the majority of smallholders/small farms/crofters in Scotland? I would think not in the central belt....
However getting commercial exhibitors would be a problem anywhere else but in the central belt...
Unless I could get free entry to such a show (like being an exhibitor), I would not really go. It is just one of a few things that will have to be cut from our family budget for this year, living costs are going up so much.... (even going to BUAS show would cost us well over 20quid for the family if I weren't an exhibitor!)
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this is one of the problems in Scotland that the vast majority will not travel unlike england and wales(i always put it down to short arms and deep pockets) but there is a minority that will grudgingly travel to events or buy stock anke it might surprise you just where the majority are located perhaps that is something that Dan could organise on an area bassis
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Well I milk three goats am and pm (and bottle feed kids/lambs), have sheep to check daily, a polytunnel to water plus garden if necessary, and also bees to have a quick look at during swarming season... So usually it is only one of us that can go away for the day, and if the journey is longer than a couple of hours, of course it has to be for a justifyable reason... and with an ever tighter family budget, such trips become luxury... and we don't have that right now...
I think you find lots of proper smallholders that will have the same problems!
And it would be interesting to know where most smallholders are based - my bet is on the Northeast, but also Dumfriesshire.... but probably not the Borders or Central belt
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So woudl you have it in NE or Dumfries? This is probably why there isn't one. If folk don't support it it won't happen. Never mind, I'l enjoy Wales.
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this is one of the problems in Scotland that the vast majority will not travel unlike england and wales
Interesting- I've always found it to be the opposite especially with goatkeepers. There are goatkeepers in England who only go to shows within 30miles range. The trouble being, they have so many shows to choose from they can do that. Whereas we think nothing of a 3 hour drive to go to a show.
I think people would be interested Rosemary, its just that everyone's opinion is different. I think it's still a worthwhile idea to get in touch with Gardening Scotland.
Beth
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I agree with Beth. I think you'll find that there are a lot of people (perhaps like myself) who would have become 'proper' smallholders had their circumstances been different and would love to go to such a show. Not all of us are able to do the 'real thing', and I am sure there will also be a large number of people who'd want a show such as this who do have the good fortune to be able to live the smallholders dream.
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I think a large proportion of those who would come would be 'wannabees'. I don't mean this in any derogatory sense, as most of us here were at one time without a smallholding, but desperately wanting to have one. So a Smallholding Show would be the place where people would get ideas, see the kinds of animals smallholders keep, what they grow, how they get an income - or IF they get an income. At that stage, people still have money to buy tickets to a big event.
As Rosemary has said, it really would have to be in the Central Belt - it's one of the penalties for living off the beaten track, that anything that's happening happens far away.