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Secretary of State for Business Vince Cable was in the Borders at the weekend when farmers made clear their need for better support from banks.

BREEDER Charles Scott from Hawick celebrated his first show of the season at Ayr by winning the Zwartbles breed championship on Saturday.

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Fluke has had a “devastating” impact on Borders sheep flocks in the last six months, according to a former NFUS livestock committee chairman.

“For the most affected farms there will no immediate relief in 2013 and there will be a hard road back to perhaps more normal production in 2014.”

Kelso provost Fiona Scott will quit later this month after four years as the town’s civic head.

South of Scotland MSP Jim Hume has written to Scottish Power urging the company to resolve ongoing power supply problems in the Ettrick Valley.

Nearly 130 sheep have been stolen from Tweeddale and the Gala Water Valley since the start of the year,

John Swan Ltd managing director Jack Clark retires on Tuesday. But you will find the St Boswells auctioneer in the ring, gavel in hand, at the company’s weekly sale on Monday.

Main funding schemes for farmers will be rolled over into 2014 as the reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) kicks in, European politicians agreed earlier this week.

It took years to get planning permission, but a windfarm of 13 turbines is on hold until the lambing on the Berwickshire site is over.

Because something has been expected doesn’t make it 
welcome. That applies to last week when the inevitable happened and the first confirmed case of Schmallenberg disease in Scotland was reported in a beef calf in Dumfries-shire.

In keeping with the trend for comparing any out-of-the-ordinary event with a similar one back in nineteen-canteen, I have been drawn into the “I mind when” or “its the worst since” frame of mind when it comes to weather.