Iain MacIver has been elected to the Crofting Commission representing the Western Isles.
He received 1069 votes.
2128 votes were cast in total in the constituency, with 1059 going to Alasdair MacEachen, the only other candidate standing.
Remarkable life story of South Uist crofter, sailor and soldier to be launched
Kildonan Museum will this weekend host a very special book launch, as the self-penned memoirs of a South Uist crofter, sailor and soldier are finally published.
Donald MacDonald (1897-1985) was a veteran of the Great War and fought at the Battle of the Somme. He travelled the world before serving in the Merchant Navy during WW2 and finally returning to raise a family in South Uist.
His self-authored book – From Small Lochs to Great Lakes – will be launched at Kildonan Museum on Saturday 9th July at 7.30pm.
Donald was one of ten children from a humble crofting and fishing family in South Uist. His story spans almost nine decades during the most turbulent times in modern history.
Enlisted at sixteen years of age into the Cameron Highlanders, he fought and was wounded at Givenchy, the Battle of the Somme and at Arras. His memoirs recall with candor the horrendous conditions of the trenches and battlefields.
He wrote: “In a heavy bombardment with death and desolation around you, your heart pounding like a piston, thinking the next shell would be yours, you thought the end of the world had come and when the shelling stopped, the brave little skylark rose high above us with her sweet song of hope and courage, you felt there is a God.”
After training as a diamond cutter, Donald’s inter-war years saw him traverse the Atlantic to find work farming in Canada, in the car factories of America and as a sailor on the Great Lakes until the profound impact of the Great Depression forced him home.
He served in the Merchant Navy and as a rigger on the Clyde shipyards during WW2.
After returning home, Donald’s story charts momentous moments in island life from ‘salvaging’ whisky from SS Politician and the introduction of road access. It also deals plainly with the struggles of setting up house in Locheynort in appalling conditions of isolation, on very poor land.
“You cannot hold time or season back. Although you are supposed to be your own master on a croft, in reality you are not. You must conform with the season at hand, in order to obtain the benefit you are looking for. Your master is the season, disregarding it and you need not expect a pay packet.”
When widowed at 57 years of age with six children all below the age of 10 years old, MacDonald persevered to keep the family unified. Thanks to the help of the children’s aunt looking after the youngest, the six children were able to grow up together on the island.
“Bringing up five children on your own was a hard task. People were kind and help in looking after them was offered many times but I felt it was important that they stayed with me and that I reared them myself. Although those times were hard, we got through them.”
MacDonald wrote his memoirs whilst in his 80s before his death in 1985. The original handwritten manuscript was painstakingly transcribed and typed by a family friend in the late 1980s but only digitised a number of years ago, which allowed it to be edited by his daughter Peggy to form this unique record of a remarkable life.
To order the new book or for further information please visit: http://www.lochstolakes.co.uk
Ewe wouldn’t believe it! Sheep gives birth to five lambs
Last night this ewe gave birth to the five lambs pictured above. Photo: Angela Campbell
A sheep on North Uist delivered a surprise last night…giving birth to five lambs!
Quintuplets are incredibly rare in sheep. However, the set born in Dunskellar yesterday evening are all healthy and strong.
Crofter Iain MacDonald and his daughter Joan could hardly contain their amazement earlier today, as the ewe stepped outside for the first time with her unexpectedly large new family in tow.
Alison (5) taking one of the lambs for a feed this afternoon. Photo: Angela Campbell
Joan was doing her rounds through the fields at 8.30pm last night when she noticed the Cheviot X ewe – which was scanned in triplets – had delivered the first of her lambs.
“I decided to leave her alone,” said Joan, “to give her some space while she lambed the second.
“I called back to see her after checking all the other sheep and she had given birth to the second lamb. So then I got the trailer to take her inside.
“Once we reached the shed and penned her up, the third lamb literally fell out of her. Then, we found a fourth in the trailer.”
However, the ewe was not yet finished with her surprises.
When she was checked again at 11.30pm, a fifth lamb was discovered in the pen.
Kate (8), Orla (10), Eoghain (13), Iain (10) and Alison (5) with the quintuplets and their mother. Photo: Angela Campbell
A quick look around the shed confirmed the fifth member of the family wasn’t another ewe’s lamb that had wandered over by mistake. Ever since, mother and babies have been doing fine.
“We don’t know how often this occurs,” added Joan. “I don’t think we’ve heard of any sheep around here having five lambs before.”
All five Suffolk X lambs are thriving and well sized given the number in the set. However, one half of their mother’s udder was found to be deficient, meaning four of the lambs will be adopted shortly.
Iain (10) feeding one of the lambs alongside Joan MacDonald. Photo: Angela Campbell
“This is her third lambing,” said Joan, “she’s about five years old.
“She’s quite a character in the flock, always standing up to the dog when we gather them all in.
“It’s a shame her udder isn’t right, but she’ll be able to raise one of the lambs.”
Orla (10) feeding one of the quintuplets. Photo: Angela Campbell
For the moment, Joan and a group of young helpers are assisting the ewe feed her five lambs.
Eoghain (13), Orla (10), Iain (10), Kate (8) and Alison (5) were having a great time helping the sheep look after her special delivery earlier today.
The ewe and her five lambs out and about this afternoon. Photo: Angela Campbell
Book your IACS appointment with SAC Consulting
SAC Consulting (Balivanich) is now taking appointments from crofters for IACS forms to be completed.
Staff are urging crofters to make appointments early so everyone can be accomodated.
Contact the SAC office on 01870 60 23 36.
SCF: Crofters’ house grant review does not go far enough
The Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) has provisionally welcomed a review of the Croft House Grant Scheme (CHGS) as long over-due but questions whether proposals go far enough to restore the scheme to its original efficacy.
SCF chair, Fiona Mandeville, said: “We have been pressing for some years for the rates of grant to be reviewed as they have long since fallen well behind actual costs faced by crofters building new homes on their crofts. In the ten years since the current rates were introduced, they have not been raised in line with escalating material costs. This has made it very difficult for many crofters, particularly the younger ones whom we all want to encourage, to have a home on the croft. There also used to be a government loan available which facilitated building. Despite a parliamentary committee recommending the reinstatement of the loan element, Scottish Government has flatly refused to consider it.”
The Scottish Government recently launched a consultation on the Croft House Grant Scheme (CHGS). The scheme provides financial assistance for building and improvement of croft housing with the aim of attracting and retaining people in remote areas of the Highlands and Islands. In 2004 the CHGS replaced the Croft Building Grant and Loan Scheme (CBGLS) which had been helping to build croft houses since 1986.
The rates set at the inception of the CHGS in 2004 (£22,000, £17,000 and £11,500, geographically targeted) were based on the old CBGLS which itself had not been uprated since 1986. Ten years later there has still been no increase. In 2008 it was estimated that the rate of support had declined from 82% (in 1986) to 14% of total build cost. Inevitably this decline will have continued since 2008.
For the next 12 weeks, the Scottish Government is formally seeking views on the future shape of the scheme and its payment rates. The consultation will close on 31st March 2015.
Ms Mandeville continued: “While even minimally increased grant rates are welcome, a grant is just one component of funding a new croft house. There remains the significant hurdle of lenders’ reluctance to make a mortgage available to crofters, due to their lack of effort to understand crofting. We urge the Scottish Government to strengthen their good intentions on crofter housing by pressing mortgage providers to look again at finding ways to offer mortgages to crofters or to reinstate a government loan.”
“We recently wrote to the minister for crofting about the CHGS and raised it on the agenda of the Cross Party Group on Crofting that we secretariat,” Ms Mandeville added.
“We will be meeting the minister soon to discuss this, amongst other crofting issues, and we encourage crofters to respond directly to Scottish Government and our members to make their comments known to SCF to be included in the SCF response.”
Consultation on Croft House Grant Scheme
A consultation has been launched on the Scottish Government’s Croft House Grant Scheme (CHGS).
The scheme provides financial assistance for the improvement and maintenance of crofter housing with the aim of attracting and retaining people in remote areas of the Highlands and Islands.
For the next 12 weeks, the Scottish Government is formally seeking views on the future shape of the scheme and its payment rates.
Crofting Minister Dr Aileen McLeod said: “Crofting is vital to communities, the economy and the environment in Scotland’s remote and fragile areas, and generated an estimated revenue of almost £86 million last year.
“By law, crofters have to live on or close to their croft which can present challenges in terms of availability and quality of suitable housing.
“We know those are major factors in rural depopulation and so by offering financial assistance for constructing and upgrading residential properties, the Croft House Grant Scheme is helping to attract and retain people in our remote, rural and island communities.
“The CHGS launched 10 years ago and although building costs have gone up, the assistance rates we are able to contribute have not. While I am sympathetic to the case for increasing the size of grants on offer I need evidence to make a decision that will benefit our remote and rural communities.
“That is why it is so important for as many people as possible to respond to this consultation.”
SCF urges crofters to respond to census
The Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) has endorsed the ‘Crofting Census’ which will be launched this week by the Crofting Commission and urges all crofters to participate.
“This is about crofters taking responsibility for the future of crofting,” said Derek Flyn, chair of the SCF.
“Crofters enjoy substantial protection under crofting law and in return are asked to comply with basic duties, the two fundamentals being that they use their crofts and live on or near them.”
One of the obligations that have come from the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 is that the Crofting Commission has a duty to issue an annual notice to all tenant and owner-occupier crofters to gather rudimentary information on the state of crofting. This is to be known as the ‘Crofting Census’.
Today, 21st October 2014, over 18,000 census forms will be sent out to all crofts. Crofters are legally obliged to complete the census forms and return them to the Crofting Commission before the end of the three month deadline of 16th January 2015.
Mr Flyn continued: “The deficit in information on crofts and crofting has long been a significant hindrance to the formation of policy and development initiatives that can help crofting. This annual survey will gradually build up a picture of where there are problems and where crofting is working. This information will help to ensure the continuation, the strengthening and the expansion of crofting communities.
“Crofting epitomises sustainable rural communities,” Flyn concluded. “The first census comes at an appropriate time with the Scottish Government consultation on ‘Becoming a Good Food Nation’ taking place now, the Land Reform Review Group’s Report having been released recently and the Scottish Rural Parliament meeting in early November. Crofting is at the heart of all these initiatives”.
PICTURES: Lochmaddy Auction Mart
Autumn sale season is in full swing across the country.
Last week saw the first sales of lambs take place in North and South Uist.
Here are some pictures taken at Lochmaddy Auction Mart on Wednesday 3rd September 2014:
Local lamb prices down in line with mainland centres
Lambs going through the ring at Lochmaddy Auction Mart last week.
LOCHBOISDALE SALE – Friday 5th September 2014
United Auctions held their opening sale of 2487 lambs & sheep at Lochboisdale Auction Mart. A good offering of lambs sold in keeping with current mainland trends. Short keeping lambs were down in values on the year which is in keeping with current levels prevailing throughout the country for prime sheep. However, longer keeping lambs sold more readily and the overall sale average of £41.71 proved to be £4 per head back on the corresponding sale last year.
PRINCIPAL LOTS & PRICES:
LAMBS
SUFFx: £62.50 – 18 West Gerinish : £62.00 – 409B Smerclate : £61.50 – 15 Carinish : £60.50 – 330 North Boisdale : £60.00 – 269 Daliburgh : £59.50 – 409/410 Smerclate : £58.50 – 6 Rhughasinish : £58.00 – 6 Frobost : £57.50 – 348 North Boisdale & 409B Smerclate : £55.50 – 287
TEXx: £63.00 – 31 Aird : £60.50 – 119 Craigston, Barra : £58.50 – 15 Carinish : £55.50 – 11 Carinish.
BELTx: £62.00 – 6 Rhughasinish : £57.50 – 18 West Gerinish.
CROSS: £63.50 – 356 South Boisdale : £58.00 – 391 Garrynamonie : £57.50 – 383 Garrynamonie & 391 Garrynamonie.
CHEVx: £41.50 – 255 Daliburgh.
CHAx: £53.50 – 414 Smerclate.
MULE: £65 & £50.50 – 123 Craigston, Barra.
BF: £49.50 – 17 Torlum : £46.50 – 32 Liniclate : £42.00 – 271 Daliburgh : £40.50 – 12 Ardvenish, Barra.
EWES
SUFFx: £61.00 – 269 Daliburgh : £50.00 & £40.50 – 271 Daliburgh.
CROSS: £40.00 – 383 Garrynamonie & 391 Garrynamonie.
BF: £36.00 – Ardnasruban, Grimsay.
WEDDERS
£54 – 271 Daliburgh: £38 – 8 Penineirine.
LOCHMADDY SALE – Wednesday 3rd September 2014
Dingwall & Highland Marts Ltd sold 4,000 store lambs. Lambs (4,000) sold to £70 per head for Texel crosses from 1 Knockline, Bayhead.
“An increased entry due to a larger percentage of twin lambs were shown in lesser bloom than usual resulting in an overall average decrease of £6.46.”
PRIZE LIST:
Cheviot lambs –
1st A Macpherson, 24 Liniclate, £61;
2nd S MacVicar, 12 Locheport, £58.
BF lambs –
1st J M MacDonald, Sidinish, £44;
2nd D J MacDonald, 3 Island Flodda, £41.
Suffolk cross lambs –
1st Melanie Maclean, 12 Rathad Mhic Eion, £64;
2nd A MacDonald, Crois Moraig, £63.50.
Continental cross lambs –
1st H MacDonald, 1 Knockline, £70;
2nd H MacDonald, 3 Hosta, £66.50.
LEADING PRICES PER HEAD:
WEDDER LAMBS
TexX – 3 Hosta, Tigharry, £66.50, 3 Claddach, Kirkibost, £61, 1 Knockline, Bayhead, £59.50;
SuffX – 18 Illeray, Baleshare & 3 Hosta, £65, 8 Aird, Benbecula & 7/8 Gramsdale, Benbecula £64, Crois Moirag, Clachan, £63.50;
Chev – 12 Locheport, Carinish, £58, 4 Knockline, Bayhead, £57.50, 2/3 Clachan Sands, Lochmaddy, £55.50;
BeltX – 34 Liniclate, Creagorry, £57;
Cross – Templeside, Carinish, £56, 8 Carinish, Isle of North Uist, £55, 2 Balranald, Lochmaddy & 8 Carinish, £55.
EWE LAMBS
Chev – 24 Liniclate, Benbecula, £61, 20 Balemore, Bayhead, £56, Blachaval Cottage, Lochmaddy, £55.50;
TexX – Kyles Flodda, Benbecula, £59, 1 Knockline, Bayhead & 5 Gramsdale, Benbecula, £55, 15 Kallin, Benbecula, £54;
Cross – 29 Ardivachaiair, Eochar, £43.50, £42.50.
Grass in the spotlight at annual Blackland Conference
Reclaimed blackland field at Kenary, Grimsay.
By the Blackland Project
Grass is the most important agricultural resource in Uist.
As Frank Fraser Darling said: “We should be able to grow grass as good or better than most parts of the country because grass likes plenty of rain and a mild climate.”
But what can we do to get the highest nutritional value for good cattle, sheep and wool?
GOOD GRASS = GOOD FEEDING = GOOD WOOL will be launched at the Michaelmas Open Day on the croft at Kenary, Grimsay, on Saturday 13th September.
The Blackland Conference will begin at 10am, followed by the opening of the Snàth exhibition from Uist Wool at 2pm in the new Wool Shed.
Tours of the working heritage machinery in the mill will take place throughout the afternoon.
The Blackland Conference will include a presentation on ‘Grassland Assessment and Renewal’ by Iain Eadie of Germinal Seeds, on local resources for soil fertility by Dr. Ken Davies with Neil Ferguson, on the initial CAP plan which may increase payments for managed grassland by Donald Murdie, and a lot of discussion about grass among the participants (please bring your ideas, comments, and questions).
There will also be short ‘hands-on’ workshops on Evaluating Blackland (Mary Norton), Results from the Seaweed/Potato Trials (Annick Merlin) and Sward Assessment (Ken and Iain).
Good feeding is essential for good wool and valuable finished products, as Uist Wool is now demonstrating.
Yarns spun from local fleece – Blackface, Cheviot, Hebridean and others – are the basis for new designs in fashion and interiors being created by Western Isles makers in the Snàth exhibition as part of Hebtember 14.
Included in Snàth is the first Harris Tweed from Uist Wool yarn to receive the Orb as well as many other innovative products. The Snàth exhibition will run Monday to Saturday until 27th September and be displayed in the Crofthouse at Kenary.
Sandwiches, teas and baking by Grimsay cooks will be available from noon to 4pm.
Please telephone 01870602597 or 01870-602954 for information. All are invited to attend.