Smallholders play big role

Iconfess to being surprised and a wee bit flattered to be asked to contribute to a column called Farmer’s View, because to some, I’m just a “pretendy” or hobby farmer.

My husband and I are smallholders near Carnoustie. According to the Scottish Government, there are 20,000 smallholdings in Scotland, which is more than the number of registered crofts. This probably doesn’t include all the small land holdings in Scotland but does include those registered as agricultural holdings.

Of course, when talking about smallholdings, the question of size always comes up and for Scotgov, a small farm is more than 3ha and under 30ha.

It’s also a farm where there is no expectation of it being the primary source of income, so it probably includes most crofts and many bigger farms where diversification into contracting, tourism and energy generation have become major income generators.

In fact, I like to think of smallholdings as lowland crofts – and but for a glitch in history, they would probably be crofts.

We own 12 acres, about 10 of which is pasture. We also rent 10 acres of pasture. We breed cattle and sheep, run three small flocks of laying hens, grow apples for juice and fatten a few pigs and some meat chickens. We grow fruit and veggies for our own use. We have to follow the same rules and regulations as any other farmer and we face the same issues and challenges – weather, market forces, loss of facilities like abattoirs.

We’re not aiming for self-sufficiency – not being able to grow chocolate or red wine renders that an impossible dream! Secondly, we also like to support biodiversity – that’s in growing heritage varieties of fruit and veggies, breeding rare breeds of cattle, sheep and pigs and in supporting wildlife, through our land management techniques (including very little management at all in some places).

We also like to produce food for local people and we like to help folk connect with where their food comes from by hosting farm visits for schools and individuals.

As yet, smallholding is the Cinderella sector of Scottish farming and there are many misconceptions about it. In a conversation with a Scotgov civil servant about the lack of financial support for smallholding, I was told that they didn’t want to support “two doctors with a hobby farm”.

I swear my tongue almost bled.

I am pleased to be a trustee of a new organisation called Smallholding Scotland www.smallholding.scot which has been established to support and represent our sector and to promote the sustainable and purposeful use of small land holdings.

Smallholders have the potential to make a significant contribution to local food security, to biodiversity, in moving urban money into the rural economy, in supporting rural communities and in facilitating contact between consumers and those who produce food.

There are estimated to be 20,000 smallholdings in Scotland which range in size from three to 30 hectares.