Family are beef farm contest finalists

The Christie family from Midtown of Glass at Huntly have reached the finals of the Agriscot Scotch Beef Farm of the Year competition which aims to showcase production excellence.

The other finalists are Alisdair and Emma Davidson of Poldean Farm in Moffat and Niall Jeffrey of Bielgrange farm, Dunbar.

Midtown of Glass is run by husband and wife Gary and Angela Christie, who manage 135 pure Simmental and Simmental cross suckler cows along with 68 heifers and 130 calves, with plans to increase numbers.

The Davidson family have a closed herd of 360 spring/summer calving Salers cows and are increasing the herd size to 400 while Bielgrange is a 300-hectare farm which runs 250 Aberdeen Angus cross sucklers.

The business also contract-farms 160 Aberdeen Angus cross suckler cows.

The assessors for the award were Robert Neill, Agriscot chairman, Douglas Bell from Quality Meat Scotland and Robert Fleming, who was crowned Agriscot Scotch Beef Farm of the Year in 2017. All farms producing cattle destined to be used for meat sold under the Scotch Beef label – from breeders through to finishers – were eligible to apply for the award.

Gary and Angela Christie at Midtown of Glass farm with their son Adam.