What Have Others Done?

Owned by the Callander family and managed by Bill Gray, Preston Hall Farms is a predominantly arable enterprise totalling 650 ha located at Pathhead in East Lothian.

The business grows a mix of winter oilseed rape, winter wheat, spring barley, winter oats and winter barley. The remainder of the land is woodland and grassland, the latter used for horse and sheep grazing and silage production. The business had diversified with a 40 horse livery, let shoot, houses and commercial lettings plus two biomass renewable plants.

Willie Harper was brought up on the family dairy farm. At 25 he had the opportunity to lease Gryffe Wraes farm from Elderslie Estate near Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire.

Willie set up his own farming business which has grown over the years and now covers 700 acres over several farms in Renfrewshire. He also contract farms another 350 arable acres for Houston Farms. The farm has 250 Aberdeen Angus cross and Simmental cross beef cattle and a 200 strong sheep flock with most stock being finished on the farm. Willie is married to Mairi and has two daughters.

Millburn Farm is a beef and sheep unit based in Harray in the West Mainland of Orkney run by the Sandison Family.

It is 1.3 miles off the A986, with the land in three distinct blocks. One block of land is at the main steading, the second block of land is around 0.5 miles away and the third block of land is 8 miles away from the main steading off the A965. Steven and Lorraine, with help from their children Carmen, Callie and Glen, are first generation farmers who started farming in 2003. Since 2003 they have managed to expand the farm to 380acres (154ha), all owner-occupied.

The farm runs around 100 simmental and saler cross suckler cows, with the offspring sold as weaned calves. All replacement heifers are home- bred. The unit also supports 160 breeding sheep, with the lambs sold store in September and also grows some spring barley.

Nether Aden is a mixed, family farm, situated close to the village of Mintlaw in north east Scotland. The farm is run by husband and wife team David and Nicola Barron, with the help of their three sons Jack, Tom and Jamie.

Nether Aden extends to 203 hectares used to grow a range of winter and spring sown arable crops, plus grass for grazing and silage. Livestock on the farm comprises a herd of suckler cows producing finished cattle, predominantly black Angus/Limousin crosses.

David and his family worked with SAC Consultants as one of nine, Climate Change Focus Farms between 2014 and 2018 to explore practical and low cost measures to improve farm efficiency and reduce the farm carbon footprint.

David Smith farms 800 acres of Grade 3B land in Aberdeenshire.

Cloffrickland Farm supports 140 suckler cows and their progeny. David also grows 300 acres of malting barley, plus 70 acres each of winter barley, oil seed rape and wheat. The farm employs 2 full time staff members, who are supplemented by occasional seasonal labour.

The herd is 50% Simmental and 50% Aberdeen Angus, using Aberdeen Angus bulls only from the top 10% in the EBV ratings, with emphasis on quality and retail beef yield.

Scott Shearlaw farms at High Garphar near Maybole, South Ayrshire, Scotland, in partnership with his parents. The farm extends to 560 acres, milking 380 mainly crossbred cows producing 3 million litres of milk per year. The farm has four employees.

The milk produced at the farm is sold through First Milk, a British farmer-owned dairy co-operative. The milk from Scott’s farm goes to Nestle to make chocolate crumb, which is manufactured in the nearby town of Girvan, to make the well-loved Kit-Kat biscuits. Kit-Kat aims to be carbon neutral by 2025. Like all dairy farmers in Scotland, Scott adheres to the standards set out in the Red Tractor Food Assurance Scheme.

A number of measures have been introduced at High Garphar to help reduce emissions and increase carbon sequestration, supporting the journey towards net zero carbon.

Auchmore Farm, run by Stephen and Sheena Mackenzie in partnership with Stephen's brother Donald, is a hill farm located to the west of Muir of Ord in the central highlands of Scotland. The farm covers approx. 290 hectares; 170 ha of that is hill ground, around 80 ha being in-bye and 40 ha of forestry. In addition the farm rents another 16 ha located outside Muir of Ord.

Stephen and Sheena worked with SAC Consulting as one of nine Climate Change Focus Farms under the Scottish Government funded Farming for a Better Climate initiative between 2014 and 2018; this case study summarises some of their findings. Auchmore also worked alongside focus farms Clynelish in Brora and Corrimony in Glen Urquhart, forming a satellite group known informally as HiFEN – Highland Farming Efficiency Network.

Kate and Ed Rowell run Hundleshope farm as 5^th generation farmers; the family have been farming on the tenanted farm Hundleshope in Peebleshire, Scottish Borders for over 50 years and have been on the estate for over 150 years.

Kate and Ed took over from Kate’s father in 2004 after moving home from County Durham where Kate worked as a vet. The farm extends to 750ha ranging from flat ground capable of growing barley to a heather hill rising to 2200ft. The farm runs a flock of around 450 cross bred ewes, mainly mules producing finished lambs. In addition the farm runs 300 blackface ewes on the hill land being tupped with the cheviot and producing store lambs. The farms suckler cow enterprise has a range of native bred cows utilising Charolais, Shorthorn and Luing bulls, again producing calves for the store market.

John Brown and his family have been farming at Gaindykehead Farm near Airdrie in North Lanarkshire for many generations, operating a dairy farm in the 1960's up to 2006 when they decided to cease milk production on their 102 hectare unit and started finishing cattle bought from other farms and crofts around Scotland. Annually the business buys in around 2,500 beef bred steers and heifers at around 500 kg liveweight and finishes them on a ration of potatoes, silage and barley in around 100 days. The farm utilises home grown grass silage and food waste in the form of rejected potatoes from supermarkets and other products such as bread waste to feed their cattle. They also use wood fines from local mills to bed cattle, which is also surplus to other industries' needs.

West Mains of Kinblethmont, managed by Robert Ramsay in partnership with his family, covers 750 hectares and grows winter wheat, spring and winter barley, oilseed rape and both ware and seed potatoes. After using min till (minimum tillage) techniques and linking this with yield mapping, Robert identified that even light trafficking was having a measurable impact on crop yields. Robert saw controlled traffic farming (CTF) as a way to protect farm soils and improve yields if it worked for his farming system.

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Sam Parsons is the farm director for Balcaskie Estate, near Anstruther in Fife. Sam along with his team run a large arable, beef and sheep business, who’s focus has changed in recent years, moving away from a conventional production-driven system, to a more holistic, regenerative approach. The estate is mid way through an organic conversion and utilises mob grazing and herbal leys to improve soil health and biodiversity, without compromising stock performance. Historically all cattle were housed at Balcaskie on a straw based system. In a bid to reduce costs, Sam trialled outwintering cattle on a bale grazing system which was very successful last year.

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Michael Ritch farms at East Fingask, Old Meldrum in the North East of Scotland, he farms alongside his father and is the third generation to farm the land.

The business operates a large mixed farming system, extending over 506 hectares of land. The business grows a range of winter and spring arable crops, runs a herd of 170 suckler cows and a flock of 1,050 ewes.

Michael introduced the sheep enterprise back in 2015, following the purchase of land near the unit that is not suitable for arable production.

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Kirkton and Auchtertyre are SRUC’s research farms in the West Highlands. They manage projects using the livestock, land and vegetation on the farm. The farms rise from the cultivated flood plain of the River Fillan, climbing high above the West Highland rail line, to a series of mountain tops at the head of the catchment.
The farms rise from the cultivated flood plain of the River Fillan, climbing high above the West Highland rail line, to a series of mountain tops at the head of the catchment. The livestock enterprise, like much of the highlands of Scotland, is concentrated on hill sheep, with currently more than 1,600 sheep (ewes, hoggs and gimmers).

Most recently, new native woodlands, extensive lowland and hill paths, Strathfillan Wigwams and a farm shop have been established to diversify the opportunities on the farms.

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The farm covers 303 hectares of mainly grass and hill ground. Crops include 8 ha of turnips and 40 ha of forestry. The farm runs 85 autumn calving Shorthorn and Salers. There are 250 pure Cheviot ewes plus an additional 800-1000 lambs bought in to finish.

Located seven miles west of Dundee, Balruddery Farm is a 170 ha arable unit between 70 and 125m above sea level on the lower slopes of the Sidlaw Hills. The soil is a sandy loam, slightly shallow in depth.

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