Perthshire farmer has many roles

JOHNNY MACKEY was recently appointed head of industry development with Quality Meat Scotland, the organisation which works on behalf of the Scottish red meat industry.

He also runs an upland livestock unit in Perthshire, with his wife Susie.

DavidAndrews caught up with him on a rare quiet moment to find out how he goes about balancing a high-profile industry role with running the farm business.

Q— What does your job with QMS involve?

Basically my job involves heading up all QMS’s activity to assist the industry to seize opportunities to improve efficiency and profitability.

Following a review process, the industry development remit has moved away from funding new research projects to sharply focus on grassroots activity to support farmers and others in our industry.

It makes total sense for us to focus our limited resources on encouraging producers to benefit from technical and management changes to reduce their costs and increase productivity.

Surely research is important to the farming industry?

A— Yes, of course it is, but what was becoming very clear was that there was a real need for us to target our resources at a more practical, farm level.

Research by its nature does not always deliver practical solutions and QMS took the view, following soundings with industry, that there is a huge amount of existing excellent research material available from which the industry has not been benefiting at grassroots level.

The reality is that a major challenge our industry now faces is ensuring there is sufficient livestock to meet future demand for Scotch Beef PGI, Scotch Lamb PGI and Specially Selected Pork. QMS is making it a priority to address this by focusing resources on communicating the latest knowledge and advances to farmers.

QWas your background in farming?

— I grew up on a family farm in Northern Ireland and my wife Susie and I were delighted to be able to buy a small farm near Blairgowrie in 2003.

Since then we have built Wester Drumlochy up to 179 acres running Luing and Shorthorn suckler cows and Cheviot and Lleyn breeding ewes.

— How do you combine a very hefty workload for QMS with running a farm business?

A— Susie is a vet and, now that the children are a bit older, she is able to combine working at the local vet practice with helping on the farm.

My father Roger also helps out and we have part-time support from a selfemployed contractor supplied through Ringlink (Scotland) Ltd.

From a time-management point of view it is really important that the farm operates through a really simple and efficient system and we continue to try to improve on that.

Wherever possible, I start and end each day outside on the farm.

Q— Do you find running the farm helps in your role with QMS?

A— Definitely. It’s a massive benefit because it keeps me really grounded in what farmers are dealing with themselves day-in day out, albeit on a bigger scale than me in most cases.

All members of the industr y development team have practical farming experience which I think is a real asset.

What are QMS’s industry development priorities?

A— Our focus at the moment is ensuring we have a programme of knowledge transfer (KT) activity which offers farmers the opportunity to choose what will be of most benefit to their business — whether it be a local benchmarking group or a monitor farm or a field demonstration day on a particular topic.

I’m keen the team spend as much time as possible out and about delivering projects which offer considerable potential benefit for the industry — like Planning for Profit, Wholesome Pigs Scotland and the Monitor Farms Programme.

Opportunities to improve grassland and grazing management will also be a big focus for us going forward and we’ll be announcing some new projects to help farmers improve their grass utilisation.

Another priority continues to be securing funding from the Scottish Government and other sources to support our priority projects.

For example around 75% of the costs of running our monitor farms, and previously the Business Improvement Groups, are funded by the Scottish Government’s Skills Development programme.

Q— What is the secret of the success of the monitor farms programme?

A— During the past decade there have been almost 40 monitor farms set up in Scotland and key to their success has been the careful choice of farms and farmers.

It is important to select a farm which is typical farm of an area and is run by a respected farmer who is willing to be open about their business.

That is the recipe for a successful monitor farm which will work well for the local area. However, I think there is also a real thirst for information from farmers in general now.

They are aware of the pressures from CAP reform and other influences and they are looking for solutions.

What I hope we can successfully do is give them the opportunity to get away from their businesses and see what they can learn to step up their profitability.

Q— Some appear to be voicing negativity about the future of livestock farming at the moment — what are your thoughts on the outlook?

A— I’ve noticed a big difference over the past five years in terms of attitude.

Farmers are now looking for ideas and are more open and receptive to the concept of knowledge transfer than five years ago.

There’s a real willingness to engage with initiatives such as Planning for Profit and we’re getting great attendances at these sorts of meetings.

People want to improve their businesses and those with a negative outlook are becoming more of the vocal minority while the others are working away quietly and focusing on making changes to adapt for the future.

Q— What would you say to farmers who think they don’t have time to go to meetings?

A— I couldn’t encourage people more strongly to get away from their businesses at least twice a year.

Those operating businesses in other types of industry are very aware of the importance of doing so and the risks of not raising your head to see what others are doing and what you can learn.

By just walking around someone else’s farm you can pick something up you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise but it can also be really enlightening to get people on to your farm to have a look at what you are doing.

The best people to advise you very often are other farmers, so ask them what they would do if it was their business.

QAQA— Are more farmers doing that?

— There’s no doubt that it takes a bit of nerve to have so many pairs of eyes on your farm — I’ve done it myself and it hurts.

However, there is a great realisation now of the potential benefits and they can be huge.

Our own farming business is relatively young, but everything we are doing today has been picked up in the past 10 years from seeing it on another farm or being fortunate enough to have some top farmers visiting us and offering some really good advice.

Another way to look at it is to ask yourself honestly: “If I were to start up all over again tomorrow would I do things differently?”

If the answer is yes, then you need to start thinking about what changes you could make to run a better business and how you would achieve that.

— Do you have any free time...?

— We have three young sons — Fergie, 6, Sandy, 4, and Euan, 2 — and they all enjoy helping Susie and I on the farm at the weekends.

I enjoy running and I also run our local church youth group and help coach the minis at Blairgowrie Rugby Club.

— Would you encourage your boys into farming as a career?

— Yes, of course — if they are keen we’ll help and encourage them to find a way to farm.

Johnny Mackey.