The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Sheep farmer and shepherd pick up Agriscot award with flock of 1,350
Scotland’s Sheep Farm of the Year award has been won by Calum Mcdiarmid of Mains of Murthly, Aberfeldy, who was presented with the award at Agriscot by Cabinet Secretary Mairi Gougeon.
He was accompanied by shepherd Ed Munt, who has been instrumental in improving the 1,350-strong flock on the 500-acre farm.
Reducing winter costs is a key aim so in order to provide more grass for ewes, half of the lambs were sold store this year, with the remainder finished on home-grown grass.
The Brown family, who farm 750 acres at Auchmaliddie, Peterhead, won Beef Farm of the Year thanks to the way they have maximised their product and taken control of the supply chain, according to one of the judges, Bruce Mcconachie of QMS.
Harry and Helen Brown run a herd of 200 predominantly Limousincross sucker cows and buy in 200 store cattle per annum to finish.
Ardross Farm Shop has been a feature of the east Fife coast for over 15 years and this year the Pollock family won Diversified
Farm of the Year. Claire Pollock and farm foreman Scott Robertson collected the award on behalf of the wider family. Claire’s sister, Nikki Storrar, is responsible for the shop.
Claire and Scott not only farm Ardross, a tenanted mixed farm extending to 360 acres near Elie, but they contract-farm an additional 800 acres and take grass lets of 400 acres.
Arable Farm of the Year went to Colin Mcgregor’s business at Coldstream, Berwickshire, from where he contract-farms 8,500 acres specialising in
cereals, oilseed rape, peas, beans and potatoes. Colin put his success down to a good team with wife Jill and nine employees.
Dairy Farm of the Year went to the Laird family, who run Blythbridge Holsteins from their Peebleshire base. Alister and son Colin milk 540 cows using 10 Lely robots and cow health is high on their list of priorities.
The Business Skills winner had 12 semifinalists narrowed down to three and Jack Young from Overton, Carluke, coming out top.