‘No poor bits now’ in South Ballo fields

Ian Stark, who farms at South Ballo, Abernyte, with his brother Don, also welcomed the ESGS group to see round his mixed arable, sheep and beef unit.

South Ballo, Littleton and Lochton extend to about 600 acres with a further 120 acres of grass rented for grazing, while the family own 118 acres of arable land near Dundee and contract farm a further 180 acres of arable.

The brothers manage all this with the help of Don’s son, Stuart, and only use contractors for potato harvest and dung spreading.

Recently they have used SOYL for mapping their fields and Ian said: “By using variable rates we have made savings in lime and fertiliser but the biggest difference is in fertility across the fields; there are no poor bits now.”

They run 130 Limousin cross and Angus cross suckler cows put to a Limousin bull.

The herd is split spring and autumn calving so they can provide the butchers, who buy at Forfar Mart, a year-round supply of quality finished cattle.

A ewe flock of 380 North of England mules is crossed with Texel tups, with the best ewe lambs kept for replacements.

The remainder of the lambs are finished off grass and a forage kale hybrid and sold through Forfar Mart.

Both this mixed farm and the dairy at Lundie use RM Welch for their grass seed but have very different requirements.

At South Ballo, grass is part of the rotation and is direct drilled after kale.

It is seldom down for more than five years except in some of the steeper and harder to access fields, and the late-heading Timothy/ryegrass mixture with white clover produces a bulky silage crop in the second year.

At Lundie, nearly the whole farm has been ploughed and resown, with the plan not to have to do it again in 20 to 25 years so the mixture there includes four varieties of perennial ryegrass and two clovers selected for their spring and autumn growth in order to extend the grazing season for the cows.