Stewartry Young Farmers Club has a new secretary – and she had a foot in every county of Dumfries and Galloway.
Abby Forsyth took on the role despite being in Dumfriesshire, where she lives at Newbie Mains near Annan with her boyfriend Niall Goldie and his family, who run a herd of pedigree Simmental cattle.
But her roots are in Wigtownshire, where she grew up at Mid Bishopton Farm near Whithorn and attended S1 at Douglas Ewart High School in Newton Stewart.
A move to Castle Douglas followed, where Abby attended the town’s high school before going to Edinburgh Napier University.
After graduating with a BA Honours degree in social sciences, in September 2020 she joined C&D Markets in Dumfries as an office administrator then in January 2022 took up a post in the Scottish Government’s Rural Payments and Inspections Division.
She said: “The job involves administering payments into the rural economy and carrying out inspections on cattle, sheep and land.
“The animal inspections are to protect the food chain and to make sure that farmers and landowners are abiding by the rules as they should be.
“They are vital in order to maintain the very high standards Scotland has, which are recognised internationally.
“Traceability is extremely important in that you know where your meat is coming from and we help ensure there’s a proper record of every movement your cattle makes.”
Abby, 25, also administers schemes for different grants and processes the applications.
“We are in the office Monday to Wednesday 10am to 3pm and if people phone in we can deal with any enquiries,” she added. “If you are eligible for payments we make sure that we will carry that through.”
It’s off to Edinburgh again for Abby this week – this time for GPS training.
And it’s the different aspects of her job that she finds particularly satisfying.
“I really enjoy the variety – no two days are the same,” she said.
“The GPS course will give me the skills in order to carry out land inspections and ensure information that farmers are submitting for their single application forms (SAFS) is accurate on the ground, and matches the boundary of the land.”
Meanwhile, back in her voluntary role as SYFC secretary, Abby is inviting everyone to a coffee morning at Haugh of Urr Village Hall on Sunday, June 4 from 10am to 1pm.
“Come along for a cuppa and a blether,” she said.
“We will have entertainment, a tombola and different games.”
