The winners of Scotland’s Rural College nationwide art competition have been announced – after much deliberation from the judges due to the high standard of entries.
School children of all ages were challenged to illustrate their vision of the future of farming, either through a drawing or painting, or a video clip.
Entries flooded in for the competition incorporating some intriguing and highly original ideas about potential methods of farming in years to come.
The competition – ‘The Future of Farming’ – was organised by the Farm Management Team at SRUC to get children excited about farming in the modern day, and find out how they see farming, and potentially the human diet, changing in the future.
Competition organiser, Dr Cath Milne, said: “The art work and videos covered a wide variety of farming systems – including farming in space and underwater; new farming tools and automated farming systems.
“A variety of unusual enterprises also made appearances including large robot cows, insects and even cupcakes!
“This is an industry which is constantly evolving and we were really excited to see what children envisage when they think about the future of farming.”
“The standard of the entries was very high with lots of novel ideas as well as wonderful artistry. Choosing the winners was a very difficult and enjoyable task and I only wish we had had more prizes to award.”
Primary Aged winners
First place winner: Innes Parkin from Drumblade Primary School, Huntly – for his drawing of a future farming scene showing robots, flying feeders, a mobile shed and various other futuristic farming equipment.
Second Place: Rebecca Gibb from Duncow Primary School, Dumfriesshire – for her drawing entitled “The Solar Powered Milking Parlour”. Main photo
Third Place: Murray McRoberts from Mauchline Primary School, Ayrshire – for his drawing “The Helicopter Farm”.
Barony Award Junior Category
Running alongside the national competition was a localised Barony Campus Award which was only open to children within Dumfries and Galloway.
The winner of the Barony Award for the best entry from a primary schools aged pupil was: Jennifer Jahn, aged 11 from Shawhead Primary School – for her drawing “Eggbot” which depicts a robot which gathers eggs and has an incubator for hatching chicks as well as a number of other novel abilities.
Jennifer has won a trip to be an animal keeper to the Barony Campus Animal Care Training Centre where she and a friend will get the chance to get hands on experience with a variety of animals including chinchillas, bearded dragons, snakes, tortoises, terrapins and various species of fish and birds.
Secondary Aged winner and Barony Award Senior Category
The winner of the best entry in the video competition for 11-18 year olds and winner of the senior Barony Award was Jay Burns a pupil in S3 from St. Josephs College in Dumfries.
Jay has won tickets and spending money to go to the Royal Highland Show. In addition, he wins a half day farm experience at Barony Campus Farm where Jay will get the opportunity to participate in farm activities and a farm tour.
The entries were judged by researchers from the Farm Management Team at SRUC along with a representative from the Cruikshank Trust which provided funding for the competition.
The winners, and a selection of highly commended entries, will be displayed on the SRUC stand at the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston from 23-27 June 2016. They will also be featured on the SRUC Farm Management website.
The Farm Management Team research how and why farmers make decisions on managing their businesses – helping farmers become more sustainable.
