Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Kirkton and Auchtertyre farms. The former West of Scotland Agricultural College (now part of SRUC) took over the lease at on 11 November 1969, also known as Martinmas quarter day when leasehold payments were traditionally made.

At that time, the board of governors wanted the college to take on a hill farm “for the purpose of developing a new approach to sheep husbandry aimed at overcoming some of the problems of the hill farmer, by new methods”.

In the minutes of a meeting in June 1967, they also stipulated “there would be little justification in the college taking over land merely to demonstrate management on traditional lines”.

Fifty years on, the farms, near Crianlarich in the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, have proved to be an invaluable resource, not only for the Scottish livestock industry but also in the UK and further afield.

Many issues affecting livestock productivity and the impact on the environment are the same

“Everything we’re doing is just as relevant to livestock and grassland systems in places such as New Zealand, South America and the Tibetan plateau,” said professor Davy McCracken, head of SRUC’s Hill & Mountain Research Centre which consists of a team of researchers based at the farms.

“Many issues affecting livestock productivity and the impact on the environment are the same.”

For most of the first 20 years, research was primarily focused on agricultural production and developing the best practice of the day to help hill farming increase its productivity.

This included buying in lime, fertiliser and feed to improve the nutritional value of hill grazings and increase the productivity of the animals by looking after their health and welfare.

“That worked very well and was very successful, innovative and influential in those early decades when you could still get a high price for selling lambs – and wool – for relatively low input costs,” said Prof McCracken.

We started to look more at the impacts – both positive and negative – of grazing animals on different habitats

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, input prices started to go up and, at the same time, the price paid for products started to go down as consumer habits changed.

With such an intensive approach to hill farming no longer a viable option, the farms moved towards an extensively managed system.

“We started to look more at the impacts – both positive and negative – of grazing animals on different habitats and parts of the farm using GPS-tracking collars,” said Prof McCracken.

“We also started to improve productivity of our Scottish Blackface sheep through enhanced recording of individual performance and selecting for those with genetics that allow them to do well in the hills.”

Over the past 20 years, the focus has shifted towards the use of precision technology, including ear tags, automated weigh crates and sensors, to collect data from livestock and the wider environment that allows hill farmers and crofters to make informed management decisions.