Five finalists in running for arable award

Five finalists have been selected for the first-ever AgriScot arable farm of the year award.

AgriScot chairman and Laurencekirk farmer Andrew Moir said the honour, like established awards for beef, dairy and sheep producers, was designed to promote and showcase forward thinking and best practice in the industry.

“However, over and above all of that, they are about recognising businesses who make the most of what they have,” he said.

“The arable farm of the year award is therefore not about giving a rosette for the highest yields or neatest fields, rather it is about giving recognition to farming enterprises where the best results possible are achieved in the prevailing circumstances.”

The five farms in the shortlist are Delab Farm, Monymusk, Aberdeenshire – a contract farmed unit overseen by Robert Drysdale on behalf of Farmcare Ltd; Ploughlands, St Boswells, Roxburghshire, managed by Jack Parsons on behalf of Mertoun Estate Farms Ltd; South Redbog, Strichen, Aberdeenshire, farmed by Peter Chapman; Templehall, Pencaitland, East Lothian run by Barclay Hamilton; and Wheatrig, Longniddry, East Lothian farmed by Willie Thomson.

Each farm submitted an entry form outlining aspects of their business such as rotation, agronomy, crop marketing and soil and environmental management and will receive a visit this month from the award assessors.

Robert Ramsay of award sponsors, Soil Essentials, said the whole stable of AgriScot farm of the year awards were extremely worthwhile and fitted well with the innovative focus of his company.