Future Farmer Award Winner 2010

Drinkstone farm by Hawick

SCIENTISTS should be researching better grass to help the environment. So says the 2010 Future Farmer Award winner Arnold Park of the famed Drinkstone flocks of Texel and Suffolks.

"We are still relying on nitrogen to increase grass yield - it should be plant breeders increasing grass yield without using nitrogen, potash and phosphates," he said. "The government is very slow to pick up on these ideas where in actual fact they are just as important or maybe more important than trying to run cars on fresh air." The pioneering Hawick farmer also says livestock farmers could help the Scottish Government top its aim of cutting carbon emissions by 11 per cent before 2020: he has cut his by 20 per cent and says other sheep farmers could do the same. "By using improved genetics, the Scottish sheep industry could achieve 20 per cent improvements in carbon foot-print - a figure which EBLEX (an independent levy board to increase profitability and sustainablity in English beef and lamb] agrees is already being achieved with Drinkstone stock. This is a tremendous achievement for us."


Arnold Park farms at Drinkstone, in partnership with his son John and wife Dianne. In the 1960s he realised genetic improvements in farming would be the basis for the industry to move forward. At the time the emphasis was on increasing milk and cereal yields. He gained first-hand experience on the family’s dairy farm before becoming a UK leader in Landrace pig genetics.

It was 30 years ago when Arnold’s father gave his son, John, some Suffolk ewes that they quickly set about performance recording to identify sheep that produced better carcases.


John, Arnold and Texel Ram "Punt Fun"

Drinkstone is a marginal hill farm rising to more than 1,000 feet which includes 800 acres of improved and 500 acres of hill land. It is fair to say that today Arnold’s role is as Drinkstone ambassador, marketing manager, webmaster and administrator. Son, John, also takes a strong role in marketing and manages all the farming enterprises. Man power comes from the family, plus a part-time shepherd and full-time Polish farm labourer.


Today at Drinkstone there are three flocks of pedigree recorded sheep, namely 80 Suffolk ewes; 120 Texel ewes and a small flock of Blue Faced Leicester ewes. There are also 750 Scotch Black Face (Hexham type) ewes and a herd of 75 pedigree Luing cows.

The farm is mainly down to grass, with 20 acres of barley. Twenty acres of kale is grown for finishing lambs and 800 tonnes of silage is made, with ewes housed at lambing and fed a silage based diet through the winter.

The sheep enterprise is genetically targeted to improve lean meat yields and carcase growth. The added bonus is the production of lambs faster, with more lean meat, requiring less grass and consequently reducing nitrogen inputs.

• Average breed scan weight and Drinkstone scan weight were 3.25kg, over ten years the industry average has increased to 5.5kg, while Drinkstone’s has increased to 11kg
• Drinkstone genetics increased EBV by 5.5kg above the average over a ten year period.
• One ram serving 60 ewes and siring 90 lambs would culminate in an extra 495kg of meat. At £2/kg this yields an extra £990 per ram. Over an average flock of say 300 ewes this would yield an extra £4,950.
• In Scotland in 2009 some 3,998,988* lambs were produced. If they had been sired by Drinkstone comparable genetics this would have amounted to an extra 21,994,434kg - a value into the Scottish sheep industry of nearly £44,000,000. *Scottish Sheep Census.

Recognising genetics as the key driver from the outset, all Drinkstone breeding stock has, uniquely, always been performance recorded. Today that means meticulous weight records and on farm ultrasound scanning. CT (computed tomography) scan is also used to increase accuracy of meat yield and gigot muscularity. This enables Drinkstone to demonstrate to national and international customers dissections of live carcases showing gigot and eye muscle. These are important traits which leading sheep breeders around the world are targeting to provide quality high yielding, high value carcases.

Drinkstone is at the forefront of performance recording, CT scanning, EBV (Estimated Breeding Values) evaluations, however the majority of the UK sheep industry remains untouched by technology adopted by the dairy and pig sectors half a century ago.

Drinkstone logic is relatively simple: Long lived productive stock reduces the emission costs over a greater weight of meat produced; the same analogy can be adopted for lambs per ewe reared – the greater the number – the greater the yield weight of lamb achieved for the maintenance emissions of the ewe flock. Therefore it is not just about quality carcases. As a result of meticulous recording with fastidious EBV longevity is continually improved along with maternal instincts and lamb vigour. Improvements in worm resistance (FEC) are also achieved.

Lamb vigour is most evident in the Black Face flock where during the past two lambing seasons not a single lamb has required to be suckled at birth – a massive turn-around thanks to recording and selection. Within the Suffolk flock it was thanks to identifying a ram carrying the vigour gene that greater vigour has been significantly injected into this flock.

Putting into practice the principles of developing Drinkstone’s genetics has in recent years yielded:

• Highest index Suffolk ram on six occasions in the past ten years – a UK record.
• Highest index Texel ram on three occasions in the past five years
• Texel flock in top 1% of breed average
• Export orders in the past five years, including semen, embryos and live breeding stock to Ireland, Belguim, Holland, Hungry, German; semen to Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Rumania and Italy.
• Three Scottish based flocks among the world’s elite – increasing outputs while driving down greenhouse gas emissions.

Drinkstone Developing the Future
Having achieved a significant head start it is undeniable, the goal posts have moved – but there is significant overlap. Climate change and greenhouse gas emissions are firmly on the agenda. The UK Government target is to reduce emissions per kilo of product – within the agricultural sector by 11%, by 2020. The gains made in performance for economic reasons also work for emissions reduction – more lamb is produced from the same resources – a win win strategy!

If by 2020, 50% of Scottish lamb was produced from Drinkstone genetics, or comparable, the Scottish sheep sector would have increased efficiency and smashed the UK target, reducing emissions by in excess of 20%

Future farmer Award 2009



Future farmer Award 2009

Amanda Cayley and Chris & Denise Walton of Peelham Farm



Peelham is a 680 acre farm in Berwickshire run by the business partnership of Amanda Cayley,Chris & Denise Walton. They formed a farming partnership in order to take on the farm in 1993 after having previously been neighbours running smallholdings adjacent to the land that came up for sale. The land ranges in height from 300 to 700 ft is grade 2 and 3.

Peelham is a low-input livestock farming enterprise. The primary agricultural output of the farm is meat from sheep, pigs and cattle (including 'field-raised beef-veal'). They have developed livestock management systems which allow them to send animals to slaughter every week of the year to ensure a continuous supply of beef, lamb and pork to their customers. Inputs to the farm are minimal - they use clover to bring nitrogen into the system and there are few other inputs except diesel and electricity although there has been some supplementation with minerals after testing showed the soils to be deficient in phosphate. The animals are finished on the farm and virtually all the feed is produced on-farm. The farm has been transformed from a conventional all-arable farm highly dependent on inputs to a mixed farming system using only minimal inputs. In doing this Denise and Chris have drawn on their academic backgrounds in ecology and agricultural economics and have also learnt from local farmers and from the organic farming movement. Peelham's focus is more on developing a sustainable system than on organic status as such but the farm has been registered as organic with the Scottish Organic Producers Association since 2006.



For more information about Peelham's land use and livestock numbers look here.
Fertility and rotations

The basis of Peelham's rotation is a red clover and grass ley which is put down for 2 years - or more in some fields. The seed mixture is provided by John Watson Seeds, who specialise in organic mixes to encourage the fixation of nitrogen. The clover grows vigorously, and these leys provide a significant proportion of nitrogen input to the farm in addition to manure from the overwintering of cattle. The leys are cut for silage and are grazed by the livestock with some fields being conserved for winter grazing. After the ley, feed barley is sown, followed by a second cereal in the better fields. Feed beans are then sown and the fields are then put back into clover and grass.

Peelham Farm



Their barley is Heart, an old variety which is tall-strawed, with a long seed head but which doesn't lodge too badly and is not susceptible to pest attack. Yields have been good, and sometimes better than what would be expected on a comparable conventional farm. As Heart is not a hybrid they are able to save their own seed and so do not even have to buy in this in. They are still experimenting with varieties of bean to suit the farm and have recently changed to one with better resistance to chocolate spot (‘Ben’). One thing which is particularly noticeable in comparison with neighbouring farms is that both the arable crops and the leys don't tend to suffer too much in dry spells as the plants put down deep roots to seek out nitrogen below the surface. This gives the plant a greater volume of soil to draw moisture from if there is little rain. Peelham also has some areas of permanent pasture and woodland areas which are used to provide grazing at times when times when the rotational fields need to be stock-free.

For more information on Peelham's low-input system look here.


On-farm butchery

In Oct 2008 Peelham opened an on-farm butchery in which they now process all their meat.

Amanda and Denise in the Peelham Farm butchery




They add value by hanging and cutting the meat, by making bacon and sausages and they are also developing a range of high-value cured meats such as salami and chorizo. All sales are direct to customers: at farmers markets, via a website and to hotels and shops.


Peelham Farm at the Scottish Fine Food Fair, January 2009

Even before setting up the butchery they had begun to develop this business by having products made by a local butcher to their specifications. In their situation, it is the opportunity to add value and to sell direct to customers, rather than sell into the commodity market, that makes the farm as a whole viable. Customers typically expect fresh meat to be available year-round but many farmers selling direct are not able to meet this expectation, particularly with regard to lamb. Peelham, however, have successfully developed an approach to animal husbandry which produces animals ready to kill every week of the year - pork, beef and lamb.


Management of year-round meat production

The field rotations are managed so that lambs can be fattened on red clover all year round - with the exception of a couple of weeks in March when if necessary a little barley is fed to the hogs. The clover has proven to grow in lower temperatures than grass and the timing of silage cuts and grazing is all done with an eye to conserving forage in the field for the winter months to reduce the need for supplementary feeding. The cattle are fed silage when housed in the winter and the pigs are fed on pea silage and farm-produced grain and beans. At lambing time a few ewe rolls are given but this is to keep the sheep accustomed to being handled, rather than to provide nutrition.

Feed beans are propcorned and crushed and the barley is crimped with a lactobacillus culture. This means it can be harvested earlier and the grain does not have to be dried (which avoids the associated fuel costs, CO2 emissions and need for weatherproof storage). The lactobacillus breaks-down cellulose in the barley making it more digestible – particularly for the pigs.

Peelham Luing cow



Peelham Farm at the Scottish Fine Food Fair, January 2009

Peelham have developed a system for producing 'field-raised beef-veal' and about half of their beef animals are slaughtered at 120-150kg deadweight (around 7 months old). This gets maximum financial value out of the animals while avoiding keeping large numbers of store cattle through the winter. A few cattle are still kept on for beef or are sold as stores.


Peelham Tamworths being fed by Andrew

For more information on Peelham's field-raised beef-veal look here.

Every week they take a mixed trailer load of animals (eg one beef-veal animal, 6-8 lambs and two to four pigs) to an abattoir 65 miles away. They have adapted a 12 ft trailer to provide separate compartments and use a mobile race to catch and select the sheep and pigs in the fields. The regular handling of the animals means that they are not stressed when they reach the abattoir and this shows in the quality of Peelham's meat.



Peelham feel that they have been working against the grain of the subsidy system - especially in taking an arable farm back to a mixed livestock system. The arable area payments discouraged this, although the single farm payment then opened the door to it. Their strategy, both in the past and looking to the future, is to make decisions about the management of the farm without taking subsidies into account and then to apply for anything which is appropriate.

Peelham Farm steading

They run a BHS-Approved equestrian centre and cross country course and occasionally host equestrian groups and overnight camping space for other large groups like bike rides. They do not have accommodation on the farm but provide the catering for these events which provides a welcome additional income. Possible future activities include selling to the local authority for school meals, growing field vegetables, putting up a wind turbine and installing an anaerobic digester .

For all the latest news on Peelham look here.

Future Farmer Award Winner 2008



Pete Ritchie and Heather Anderson of Whitmuir Farm are the winners of the 2008 Future Farmer Award.
Three other farmers were commended.



Heather Anderson                 Pete Ritchie



Whitmuir Farm

Whitmuir is a 54 hectare upland farm in Peeblesshire and until recently it was, like many other farms in the Scottish Borders, a single-enterprise sheep farm. In 2000 Pete and Heather took over Whitmuir and they have already completely transformed it: they keep pigs, cattle, sheep and poultry, grow a wide range of vegetables (outdoors and in polytunnels), run an on-farm butchery and sell all the farm produce direct to local people through a busy farm shop and a home delivery service.


Whitmuir Farm shop



Whitmuir benefits from access to local markets as it is close to the town of West Linton. It is on a main road and is accessible from Edinburgh. However, the land itself is north-facing, high and poor. Pete and Heather have achieved the transformation of Whitmuir by applying tremendous enthusiasm and energy, converting the farm to organic and engaging with the local community. They have made use of a Scottish Government grant for farm business development and have had a loan from Triodos, a bank which lends money to enterprises which promote sustainable development.
Environmental sustainability



Pete and Heather set out to try to farm as sustainably as possible and the first step was to stop using nitrogen fertilizer on the grass because its production is energy-intensive. Instead they use clover to fix nitrogen in the soil and grow green manure to improve the overall fertility of their arable fields. Rather than spraying herbicides the pigs are run on the fields to clear the ground of docks and other perennial weeds before the vegetable part of the rotation.




Whitmuir Farm pigs

They started converting the farm to organic as soon as they bought it and now all the enterprises at Whitmuir are managed to Soil Association organic standards. This gives the farm shop a unique selling point and allows them to set prices which reflect the costs of their production systems. They have participated in a Soil Association Organic Horticulture Support Programme and have benefited from the advice and support of other organic producers.



The conversion of farm buildings was done to the highest energy-efficient specifications and there are plans to install a 25kw wind turbine to supply all the power to the farm and butchery.


Developing local markets

To be sure of having a market for their produce Pete and Heather asked friends and neighbours to commit to buying produce from the farm and set up a standing order for a set amount each month. Their original target was to get 100 'farm supporters' but they now have over 130 supporters, with standing orders ranging from £10 a month to £600 (the average is £50). There are also a few wholesale customers, such as a local bistro. When the farm was only producing meat they ran a home delivery service for their supporters. Then, when they started to grow vegetables, a weekend shop was set up in the draughty back of a barn. Demand was overwhelming and they quickly had to convert a farm building into a permanent shop which is now open seven days a week.


Whitmuir Farm shop



The shop stocks: Whitmuir meat, backed up with meat from a limited number of other organic farms, Whitmuir vegetables backed up with vegetables from other Scottish organic producers; exotic fruit bought from an organic holding in Spain; organic milk and dairy produce; a wide range of organic wholefoods. When supporters make purchases in the shop the cost is deducted from the credit in their account but other customers pay in cash. Despite the success of the shop Whitmuir still does home delivery runs to Edinburgh and to the West Linton area. Several families have decided not to shop at supermarkets any more but instead to buy all their food through Whitmuir and have it delivered. They email with a full weekly shopping list and shop staff make it up for them. For Pete and Heather, this ties in with the notion of farming as providing a food service rather than being a primary industry producing a commodity.



Farm supporters get regular emails about what produce is available and these also explain why certain crops have failed or how the weather has affected production. There is an occasional paper newsletter, Pigmail, which has articles about wider agricultural and environmental issues and a website. Supporters are invited to events such as BBQs, cookery demonstrations, wine tastings and talks. Pete and Heather are keen to help their customers learn more about food production, for instance by producing a detailed seasonal veg chart to help people understand when different vegetables can be grown in Scotland. All visitors are encouraged to take a look around and see the animals and there are plans for a cafe and an education centre which will allow further opportunities for developing the relationship between customers and the farm.

Whitmuir Farm polytunnels


Employing local people

As a single-enterprise sheep farm Whitmuir would have been run by the previous owners without paid staff. Now, with diverse agricultural enterprises, the butchery and the shop, it provides employment for nine people, as well as Pete working on the farm side of the business and Heather on the butchery and farm shop. They employ an experienced farm labourer /tractor driver part time, a young man full time on farm work and general help, an experienced organic grower four days a week on the horticultural enterprise, a master butcher and a butchery assistant three days a week and four people part-time in the farm shop. The butchery is currently only operating part-time and more staff will be needed if it starts butchering meat for other organic farmers. The diversification of Whitmuir has created new rural jobs which have been filled by people from the local area.

Whitmuir Farm shop staff (Heather Anderson second from right)


Enhancing biodiversity

Because Whitmuir is organic Pete and Heather hope that wildlife can make use of the farmed areas, but they have also taken every opportunity to create habitats for wildlife and enhance biodiversity. The old field boundaries on the farm were a double ditch and mound system which is being protected and restored using Environmentally Sensitive Area funding: the boundaries have been double fenced and hedges planted alongside the existing mature trees. Hedges have also been planted to subdivide the fields in the horticultural rotation.



Whitmuir Farm field boundaries

There are two main areas of woodland on the farm and they have been connected up by new planting under the Woodland Grant Scheme. Pete values the woodland as shelter for stock and he is trying various ways of allowing stock controlled access to woodland areas. There are two established ponds on the farm which are managed for biodiversity. A whole-farm survey is currently being carried out in order to set up a 'biodiversity trail' for visitors.


Whitmuir Farm pond

Commended Applicants 



2011 is the first year the Trust has seen fit to award a “Runner UP” Trophy together with a substantial cash prize.

Alan Blackwood – Auldhouseburn Farm
The farm has always centred on blackface sheep; currently running around 1400 pure breeding ewes.  Top pedigree male and female stock  are sold throughout the year, and success has been achieved through significant investment each year in new stock sires, selling progeny to a top of £65,000 for a tup lamb in 2010.  This has taken years of perseverance and commitment though, and therefore will hopefully remain a main part of the business for years to come.


The Blackwood family with Alan holding his Runner Up Trophy – just presented by Harvey Macmillan of the Murray Trust

The farm previously employed my mother, father and full time shepherd, however with me leaving education and joining the business five years ago, other ways to create employment had to be found.  Therefore, a free-range egg enterprise was started.  Initially, a laying unit to house 16,000 hens was built in 2008.  Since then, we have built another house each year, and now have a total of 48000 hens, laying 45000 eggs a day.  These are supplied under contract to Glenrath Farms, who in turn supply them to Asda and Tesco stores throughout Scotland.  All of this has taken a large amount of capital investment; however I feel there is a strong future in the free-range egg market, and that it will continue to have been a wise move at the right time. 

This part of the business ties into Auldhouseburn very well – as the houses are built on less favourable ground, maximising the return from otherwise low value land, but doesn’t affect the sheep stock, as they can still graze amongst the area the hens have access to.  We have also improved the surrounding ground which they have access to (a hectare is allocated to every 2000 hens), planted a large number of mixed species of trees and hedging, creating habitats for wildlife, and also used the abundantly available hen manure to remove the need for bought-in-fertiliser, an otherwise large annual cost.

The hen manure is also going to open a new opportunity in the future.  Due to its high nitrogen content, soon it will be possible to process it to produce electricity by way of a ‘gassifying’ plant and nitrogen fuelled generator.  This is by means of new technology which is going to be available – again at significant investment initially – but with strong return through the new feed in tariff payments made available since last year.  This potential use of the hen manure also opens up other opportunities – as hot water is a by-product of the process; which in turn could be used to heat houses, or a rearing-house for chicks, or other more radical ideas such as indoor fish farming or algae production to create biofuel.  There are endless possibilities at every turn.

Electricity production is where I am really pushing to utilise Auldhouseburn’s assets, and where I feel all of Scotland’s farmers should be looking into investing through a variety of ways.  Every farm has a resource, or a by-product which can in some way, be used to ‘farm’ electricity, and with Scotland’s pursuit of fulfilling a target of 80% energy production from renewables by 2020, exciting new technology and ideas are being developed to make this possible.

I believe that if we can turn Auldhouseburn, which in comparison to many places, is small, high, has a wet, exposed climate, and not a lot of good quality ground, into a profitable and sustainable business which can support a lot of people, every farm has potential to do the same.  Imagination and a desire to make the most of what you have got is all you need!

Minty and Aeneas MacKay of Ardalanish, a 630 hectare organic farm on Mull

Minty and Aeneas seek to adapt the best of traditional practices to the needs of the future. They choose to keep Highland cattle and Hebridian sheep because these breeds are adapted to the local conditions and their grazing patterns improve the habitat for wildlife.






Ardalanish, Mull

The animals are finished slowly on the moorland and are sold directly to customers who know the farm. The Hebridian sheep also provide wool for an ambitious on-farm weaving business which produces tweed, rugs and designer clothing in a range of subtle natural colours. Ardalanish Isle of Mull weavers employs five paid staff and is now a popular destination for tourists on Mull. Minty and Aeneas's vision for the future is to re-invigorate the local community by providing employment by running educational, social and cultural events on the farm. www.ardalanishfarm.co.uk



Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   01681 700674


Johnny and Susie Mackey of Wester Drumlochy, a 18 hectare farm in Perthshire

Johnny and Susie run a herd of commercial suckler cattle on Wester Drumlochy and some additional rented land. At present they both have jobs off-farm but plan for the farm to provide a part-time income in future.





Wester Drumlochy, Perthshire



They aim to produce high eating quality beef through a low-input production system. In managing their animals they aim at all times to minimize stress and have developed handling pens and a weaning system with this in mind. They have also accustomed all their animals to being approached and handled in the field. In the autumn the stock are run on fields of 'conserved grazing' and in winter they are using an innovative system for feeding straw and haylage which avoids any tractor work in the winter months. The bales are set out into the field in the autumn, set in spaced rows and placed on end. An electric fence is set up so that the stock can only feed from two bales at a time and every few days a section of the fence is moved so that two new bales are accessible. Ring feeders are manually placed over the new bales so that feed is not trampled. The chore of winter feeding is thus reduced to a few minutes work and poaching is minimized. Johnny and Susie have implemented innovative management systems for producing high quality beef finished on a grassland farm while avoiding the environmental and financial costs of buying in feed.



Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   01250 870103 mob 07748 788703