Nikki is always badgering me about farm news. I quite like it, when I manage to sit down for long enough, and actually think about what has been happening on the farm. It’s been a busy summer with little time for writing. Nonetheless, I had some spare time this week so I hope you enjoy hearing what’s been happening behind the scenes.
June started with us AI’ing (Artificial inseminating) a group of 40 cattle. On the farm, we calf all year round, cows are split into 4 groups of 40 and each group calves at a different time of the year. So this was the ‘Gibliston’ group of cattle’s turn in the hope that we would see some calves on the ground from them in early March 2026.
We then started silage, as our cattle and sheep are all pasture for life certified, silage is key to everything we do. Silage is grass we cut in the growing season and store to feed cattle in the winter when the grass has stopped growing. This year has been unseasonably dry (have you ever noticed that farmers always moan about the weather no matter what?), so therefore our first cut was slightly more disappointing than we would have hoped. That said, we filled our pit and have 2nd and 3rd cut of grass to try again.
The next big event in the Scottish farming calendar was the Royal Highland Show – in our family it is always a fight about who gets to go on what dates, as some of us always need to stay at home and look after animals and the shop,. Although we don’t show any animals, or take part in any of the trade stands, it is always a welcome break for us all. A fantastic opportunity to meet up with old friends and to look at lots of equipment we can only dream about.
For anyone that’s been wandering along the costal path between Ardross and Elie, they might have noticed lots of calves appearing over the last couple of months. We had a fantastic calving in this group and the calves are thriving with all this good weather to support them, we just hope for a wee bit of rain to support some grass growth.
Harvest was an early one this year with the combines first rolling out on the 7th of August. We decided to grow hard wheat this year, on a recommendation from Duncan Warnock from JDW Agri, our agronomist. This was on the back of some of our soft wheats last year having the correct credentials to make it for biscuit wheat (a better grade of wheat than usual). So, the variety we grew this year was Dawsum, it looked well all year although the crows did try their best to eat and flatten it! We have been delighted that the yield has been incredibly good, and we made biscuit quality again.
Unfortunately, the spring barley is another story. Although we were combining at between 13% – 18% moisture which is fantastic (normally we dry all our grains down to 15% to ensure longevity and safe keeping) and the yields were average, the price unfortunately is horrific. I don’t know if we are drinking less alcohol globally, if trumps tariffs are having an adverse effect on whisky production in Scotland or if there is another reason all together. All I know is that there is no real market for Malting Barley this year, meaning that the alternative feed market is flooded and the price at rock bottom. Screenings (small seeds) in barley have been an issue for farmers across Scotland this year, especially in Perthshire, Angus and Fife – testing around the 16%. Normally for malting, the maltsters would prefer below 10% but would take up to 15% with financial deductions. However, they have been known to be more lenient in years that most crops are suffering the same problem. As demand is down globally, I think it will be unlikely that any limits will be changed this year.
We have one field left to combine, it was sown much later than the rest (because we were still harvesting vegetables from it for the shop right up to the last minute). Hopefully we will get that combined next week and then it will be onto sowing next years crops. First to go in will be the Oil Seed Rape followed by the Winter Wheat.
On the vegetable side of things, this is our biggest time for harvesting. Our garlic crop was a huge success this year, with it now all dried and ready for sale in the shop. We are also harvesting lettuces, beetroot, kale, potatoes, savoy cabbages, hispi cabbages, purple top turnips, turnips, purple sprouting broccoli, courgettes, cauliflower, broccoli, shallots, squashes, red cabbage, white cabbage and many more…
Over all, this year hasn’t been too bad. The problem with farming is that much of our return we have little control over. Not much we can do about the weather and we have even less control of the global price for grain. We can be thankful to live in such a wonderful place, work outside in all weathers with our family and a fantastic team. Dad always said if you find something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. I think he might just be right!
Hope you enjoyed my farm news!
