By Ewan Pate, farming editor

THERE CAN hardly be a greater advocate for farming in highland Perthshire than Alex Murray.

Having farmed extensively at Lurgan and now at Camserney, Aberfeldy, and been provost of Perth and Kinross in the early 1990s, he has a wealth of experience which he has used to forge firm opinions about rural development. It is clear that, for him, economic activity in the hills comes first.

Sitting in his truck at 2500 feet above sea level on Glengoulandie hill he is a man close to the environment. With views across to Schiehallion only a couple of miles to the west and with Ben Nevis and Lochnagar both in sight in the far distance it is quite a workplace.

Through binoculars he can see and identify groups of Blackface ewes and lambs spread out across the hill just as they should be.

He has 1000 ewes on the 4500 acres of tenanted grazings at Glengoulandie, an adjacent 2500 acres rented from the Forestry Commission and 110 owned acres at Camserney.

Mr Murray also rents two farms in Glen Almond where he runs Cheviots and suckler cows. His son David and daughter-in-law Sally have taken over the 2500 acres at Lurgan and keep 850 ewes and 70 cows.

It is a substantial enterprise built up gradually from the croft near Beauly where Mr Murray was brought up. But he doesn’t waste time looking back. He feels a sense of urgency about the need to encourage young people into farming.

“What are we thinking about?” he asks. “We might have left it too late. There are huge tracts of land going to waste with heather so strong you could make pit props from it.

“The other 24 countries in the EU all have plans for retiral of older farmers and bringing in new blood.

“The current proposals here for encouraging new entrants, with a grant of 55,000 euros spread over seven years, are not on. It amounts to £5000 a year and will hardly keep a new business going, never mind allow it to thrive.

“The money should be given in one block as a start-up grant and be backed by interest-free loans.

“Farming is a long-term business. We have to inject new blood but it is a good investment. The money goes round and helps local hauliers, markets and the rural towns,” he said.

But his view of rural development goes much further than farming. The high hill road on which we are sitting leads over to a barites mine which must be one of the highest-altitude industrial sites in the UK.

The stone, which is extremely dense, is ground to make drilling mud for the oil industry as well as many other uses including being the base for barium meals.

“This mine supports 20 jobs and if it was ever to close that would be 20 fewer shopping baskets being filled in Aberfeldy.”

There has been a prolonged debate about opening a new mine at the other end of the ridge above Strathtay and Mr Murray is in no doubt that the development should proceed.

On his own farms he has diversified constantly. Apart from being one of the first advocates and participants in the groundbreaking Perth farmers’ market, he has been investing in new projects at home. In fact his biggest diversification is only yards from his back door at Camserney.

The family use the mountain burn which cascades down from Lurgan to drive a farm-scale hydro electricity plant. It produces up to 1000 kilowatts, with the power being sold to the grid for 7.5p per kilowatt hour.

“It was a big venture for us. It cost £100,000 before a spade was turned and £700,000 in total, but it is coming into its own now. Last year it performed 10% above budget,” he said.

The head of water from the intake into the pipe to the generating plant is 650 feet and Mr Murray reckons there are 600 similar burns in Scotland which could be harnessed in the same way.

The remarkable thing is that the scheme is virtually invisible.

“People thought the pipeline would be a scar on the hillside but it has fallen back to nature after only two years,” he said.

The powerhouse itself is built into the ground and with broom and grass already growing on the roof it is hard to imagine that it conceals the very latest in technology.

All of the machinery is imported, a fact which Mr Murray regrets. The fibreglass feed pipes came from Norway.

He also has plans to develop a small eco village and has a long-term ambition to develop a wind farm in a high glen.

“We can do all of these things but we mustn’t lose sight of the farming,” he said.

“There is also a crying need for affordable housing. I have been saying that for years but we have a short- sighted council at the moment as far as that is concerned.

“There is also not nearly enough being done to encourage tourism. In Scotland we have to start treating it as a real industry. ”

It would be easy to sit at home and espouse these views but Mr Murray has a long history of public involvement. He was a long-serving councillor for Aberfeldy representing the SNP with, as he readily admits, a strongly independent stance.

In his view the current agricultural economy is the most unstable for 100 years and he believes that message has to be taken to a wider audience.

That is why he was the instigator of the Perth and Kinross Agricultural Forum, which has met regularly since 2000 and keeps councillors and the wider public aware of what is going on in the countryside.

“Frankly, we are on the verge now. With only 40% of the population driving the economy and keeping the other 60% going it is a dangerous situation and totally unsustainable,” he added.