The RHET 'Year of Sheep' campaign, supported by the Royal Northern Countryside Initiative (RNIC) has developed a range of teaching resources for use in schools aimed at educating children about food production in Scotland and the contribution made by farmers to the countryside.
Over four days, from 22 to 26 April, over 6000 youngsters from 257 schools met lambs online from five different farms across the region and had plenty of opportunity to ask questions.
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Malcolm Morrison, Director of Halladale-based GMG Energy said: "As both a sheep farmer and business owner, I wanted to provide financial support to this RHET initiative since in my view it is important to give our young people an enjoyable opportunity to really understand how the rural community contributes to the welfare of us all."
Fran Matheson, RHET Highland said: "It is so important we bring the farming story into the classroom and touch on talking points like animal welfare, the sustainable uses of wool, and cover off even the questions you just don’t expect from a young audience.
"Many of the Year of Sheep Farm Visits in the 2023/2024 school term would not have been possible without the support of our supporters like GMG Energy, NFU Mutual, QMS and many other agricultural businesses who have given generously and in kind."
GMG Energy, the rapidly expanding Highland timber products specialist which contributes significantly to the circular economy in the Highlands and the Northern Isles, has recently invested £150,000 in state-of-the-art sawmill equipment which takes its larger timber and processes it into posts, rail, cladding and purlins, or structural roof members.
As a major plank of its business model, the company is committed to replacing every log of timber that it uses, and plants 10,000 new trees a year, which grow to maturity in 35 years. It far exceeded this target in 2021, planting in the region of 20,000 trees.
