The Farm Profit Programme is an ambitious new project delivered by the Farmers Journal and ANM Group with the support of the Scottish Government. The objective of the programme is to improve the technical performance and profitability of livestock farms across the north and northeast of Scotland. Read more

We farm in partnership at Ardhuncart Farm, Kildrummy, about six miles west of Alford on Donside. The farm, which extends to 250ha, is rented from Ardhuncart Estate. The unit is ring-fenced with some steep ground and around 95ha of hill land. Most of the farm is down to grass. Around 40ha of barley is grown to give us feeding and bedding for the livestock and any surplus grain is sold.

There are 85 Simmental cows that calve mostly in the spring. The sires are predominantly Simmental, with one Limousin used on the heifers.

Every year, we buy yearling heifers to run alongside our own homebred heifers and these are grown on to sell with their first calf at foot. The remainder of our calves are sold as stores at around one year old.

The farm also carries a flock of 190 Cheviot mule and Texel-cross ewes.

These go to Texel tups, with the majority of the lambs sold prime through Thainstone Mart.

A few ewe lambs and gimmers are kept on to be sold at the September breeding sale at Thainstone.

Winter housing is a limiting factor on the farm, so, for the programme, we are aiming to maximise our output from grass while maintaining cow numbers at the current level. This should increase sale weights and reduce our feed bill. We also plan to tighten the calving period to ease workload.

On the sheep side, we would really like to increase our weaning percentage and make best use of grass. This will help improve output and if we can lift performance, we may increase ewe numbers over the next few years.