Spring is the season of renewal down on the farm, though it has to be said there is little active signs of growth in the fields. However, the past week provided the industry with the prospect of a real breath of fresh air through the appointment of James Withers as the new chief executive of NFU Scotland. He is a young man of just 31 years, but he has been involved with the fine detail of agri-politics for some time and certainly knows his way around the block.
I for one, and most within the industry, hoped he would gain this appointment and it is to the credit of the interview panel that it ignored his comparative youth and recognised his abilities.
The average age of Scotland's farmers is regularly quoted as being 57 years.
Technically this may be correct in that those who hold the purse strings and sign the vast array of paperwork that bedevils farming may be of a senior age, but there is an army of young thrusters and entrepreneurs out there who are fast becoming the engine of modern Scottish agriculture.
David Hay seems to farm just about all the arable land around Perth while the brothers Porter in Angus have made a huge success of their soft-fruit business. Rob Forrest in the Borders is another whose name springs to mind as an innovator, and there are very many more whose fathers have taken a step back allowing the next generation to make a mark.
Far too often the older codgers have hung to the reins way past the time when the younger generation should have been in charge.
However, I sense a change in attitudes and this can only be for the greater good of farming and the countryside. I read the other day of a prediction that farming is on the verge of a golden era. That may be going just a shade too far, but undoubtedly the prospects are exciting at a time when people have at last come to realise that food can no longer be taken for granted.
It is also pleasing to see that the Scottish Association of Young Farmers' Clubs is in better heart than for many years. After years of decline, membership has actually increased.
The YFC movement has not always enjoyed the best of media coverage, frequently as a result of the misdemeanours of a small minority. However, there appears now to be a greater sense of maturity and that has to be welcomed.
But that still leaves the problem of how all of those who want to make a start in farming get that first foot on the ladder without considerable parental assistance.
I well recall chatting with Alex Salmond shortly before the elections last May discussing this very issue just across the road from Holyrood. Salmond was well aware of the vexed problem and is on the record as saying that his government will provide assistance of around £1 million each year to ease the entry of young farmers into the business world.
The SNP has honoured many of is pre-election pledges, but nothing appears to be happening on this front.
It is a complex subject and part of the problem is the fear on the part of landowners that a Scottish government may introduce an absolute right to buy if land is let on a traditional tenancy basis. Only last week a leading firm of lawyers advised its clients to think very carefully before letting land.
