I recently attended a dinner in Edinburgh hosted by the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs (SAYFC) International Trust where, among others, I met a dozen young farmers visiting Scotland on exchange trips.

I spent some time chatting with an enthusiastic 23-year-old farmer's son from Tasmania who had family roots in Orkney, but there were others from Eire, N. Ireland, Wales, England, Switzerland, Finland, New Zealand, USA and Norway. I even met up with one of the organisers who I had been at college with and who had benefitted from an exchange trip to New Zealand shortly after qualifying all those years ago.

As you would expect, in return Scottish young farmers get the chance to travel overseas on exchange trips that are subsidised by the Trust.

The International Trust was established in 1977 and is now the principal sponsor of outgoing and incoming young farmers participating in exchange experiences. Last year 71 young Scottish farmers received over £28,000 of support, while a total of 800 individuals have been awarded financial grants over the past 40 years.

The idea is that exchangees are hosted by different families in different parts of the country they are visiting so they can experience different types of farming. All accommodation, some meals and travel between host families is provided.

I recall the far-off days of my youth when I left college full of confidence and knowing just about everything I needed to know. As I matured I seemed to know less and less with the passing years and became more and more dependent on advice from others. Agriculture has moved on so much since the early 70s, with advances in science and technology that I would have considered to be as unbelievable as science fiction at the time of my graduation.

Fortunately, one of the good things about further education is that it teaches you to seek out information and how to evaluate it.

While my college training was a sound one, I have found that travel is a better tutor as it opens your eyes to many other cultures, methods and possibilities.

I was fortunate to be awarded a scholarship in my late thirties by the Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust (NFST) that allowed me to study sheep production and marketing in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. My trip was undertaken shortly after the collapse of the Berlin wall, and I was able to study the chaotic disintegration of the communist system of state-organised agriculture.

It was a wonderful, inspiring experience that subsequently opened up a lot of exciting opportunities for me.

NFST awards individuals life-changing opportunities to expand knowledge and understanding with a view to developing agricultural sector leaders and innovators of the future.

The organisation evolved from the Nuffield Foundation that was established in 1943 by the industrialist Lord Nuffield (William Morris).

Born in 1877 near Worcester, Morris was the grandson of a farmer. From repairing bicycles he progressed to making new ones. His motor car business arose from a desire to produce something better than the early cars he repaired for wealthy students.

Morris realised at an early stage in his business that he should seek best-practice in his new industry. He travelled to the emerging motor capital of Detroit to understand how the Americans were able to produce reliable cars that could undercut the price of those produced in Britain at the time.

He successfully took on Henry Ford with a new car, the Morris Cowley, that was mass-produced on American principles. Morris continued to travel, seeking new ideas and markets. Recognising the value of travel and study, he also sent key employees out into the world to develop themselves and introduce new concepts to his business.

Mind you, SAYFC exchanges and Nuffield Farming Scholarships are more than opportunities for learning new techniques of production and marketing - they are about experiencing different cultures and taking time out to discover yourself.

It's very easy to allow yourself to become cocooned in family life, but travelling on your own for the purposes of studying different systems of farming can and should take you out of your comfort zone, and challenge you to take stock of your life and where it is going.

At one time Nuffield Scholars went to safe, English-speaking countries like Australia, New Zealand and North America, but now they go to more exotic destinations like China, Japan and South America.

Such locations may be exciting and interesting but they can also present linguistic challenges, where poor translations lead to misunderstandings - but that's part of the travel experience.