Netherthorpe Communicator of the Year

The Guild’s Netherthorpe Communicator of the Year award for 2010 was presented press and PR consultant Ross Muir, who said: “I am honoured and privileged to receive this award after more than forty years in the agri-communications business.”

The 2010 award winner, selected from member nominations by Guild president Lord Ewen Cameron (left above) and chairman Adrian Bell, received the crowing cockerel trophy, which is permanently displayed in the bar at The Farmers Club.

Today, Ross focuses on press and public relations but his career includes many years writing as a journalist for several familiar titles.

“I studied agriculture in Aberdeen before joining the staff of The Scottish Farmer as a trainee reporter,” Ross recalls. “I then moved to The Scotsman, later joined a features agency in Fleet Street, London, and had a spell on the farming desk at the Press & Journal in Aberdeen.”

He set up a public relations consultancy in the early 1970s and also started freelance broadcasting with the BBC, working on various radio and television programmes and presenting at both Grampian and Scottish Television.

He was best known, however, as the presenter for 25 years of the BBC’s award-winning Landward programme, which took him filming all over the world. A 1991 documentary he scripted and presented about rural life in Papua New Guinea won the One World Broadcasting Trust’s award for best regional television programme.

“For the past twenty years I’ve worked as press officer of the Royal Highland Show, which last year attracted an audience of nearly 190,000 people, handled media relations for the Royal Highland & Agricultural Society of Scotland, and edited the members’ magazine,” notes Ross. “I merged the company with O’Leary Public Relations in 2005 and the business now trades as O’Leary RM Public Relations based in Dunfermline. Although the agency has a wide portfolio of non-agric clients, we continue to specialise in the food and farming sector.”

The citation for the Netherthorpe Award reads: Ross Muir is one of Scotland’s most respected public relations experts specialising in the food and farming sectors and has been a central force in agri-journalism in newspapers, magazines, radio and television. It is a mark of his professionalism that he has frequently been the first point of contact for organisations or companies in the industry either seeking to build a public profile or restore public confidence after national disasters such as BSE and foot and mouth.

“Although I regard winning the Netherthorpe Award as the pinnacle of my career, it doesn't signal an intention to retire,” Ross emphasises. “As a Guild member, I will continue to spread the word about food and farming, a sector all too frequently taken for granted by the politicians and the public.”

Scottish freelance journalist Bill Howatson won the 2008 Netherthorpe Award in recognition of his near 30-year record communicating to farming and lay audiences through a number of Scottish newspapers.

Bill was chosen from six nominations made by Guild members; they were judged by Guild president The Countess of Mar; Guild honorary member, past president and chairman of the judging panel, Tony Pexton; and 2007 winner Don Gomery.

Bill Howatson

The award is presented annually to the Guild member who among those nominated by fellow members is judged to have made an outstanding and sustained contribution to agricultural communications. It was first made in 1991 and is recognised as the Guild’s premier award.

Bill's nominee wrote: "For three decades, Bill Howatson has gone above and beyond the call in communicating the agricultural industry to the British public. Unlike many agricultural journalists, who seem to think their job is to do the industry’s public relations, Bill has questioned and criticised.

"His questions have been probing, his criticism well justified of an industry that still, in many instances, believes the world owes it a living. His contributions are incisive, his wit acerbic and his writing style a pleasure to read."

In addition to the bronze 'crowing cockerel' trophy, sculpted by former Guild member, the late Rintoul Booth and which stands on permanent display in the bar of The Farmers Club, London, Bill receives a framed certificate a meal for two at The Farmers Club to a value of £100.

The Netherthorpe Award 'crowing cockerel' trophy

Bill Howatson started his career as an agricultural journalist in 1979 as markets editor of The Scottish Farmer, moving in 1983 to the Dumfries & Galloway Standard as a sub editor and features writer.

In 1984 he was appointed farming sub editor on the Press & Journal, Aberdeen, becoming farming editor later that year and holding the post until 1996, when he left to do freelance and public services work.

He has served on the boards of Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Environment Agency, as well as continuing to write regularly for the P&J and the Dundee Courier, while also having articles published in The Scotsman, The Herald and Tayside Farmer.

Bill was elected to Aberdeenshire Council in 1999, and re-elected in 2003 and 2007.  As a councillor, and reflecting his strong interest in rural Scotland, he chairs both the North East of Scotland Agricultural Advisory Group and the council’s internal Rural Affairs Working Group.

He served on the Guild council from 1989 to 1998 and was national chairman in 1995-96, holding office also as secretary and chairman of the Scottish regional group.

Bill has won several Press awards and is a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies (FRAgS).

The Guild's Netherthorpe Award was presented to Essex farmer and Guild member Guy Smith for his informative and often controversial writing, including a regular Smith's Soapbox column in Arable Farming and, in particular, his efforts to promote information and positive messages on agriculture. His Food, Farm & Countryside project has sent out 300,000 copies of a 28-page booklet aimed at communicating key facts about the British agricultural industry to the general public.

One of the judges, former Guild president Tony Pexton, presents the Netherthorpe Award to Essex farmer and writer Guy Smith. Photo: Jonathan Page, Farmers Weekly.