Reducing prescriptive rules and allowing farmers to better look after the countryside were key themes at the Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) conference in Perth last week. The one-day event in Perth was to promote successful farming and improvement of the natural environment.

Opening the day was Francesa Osowska, chief executive of SNH who highlighted the positive working relationship SNH has with farmers.

She went on to admit that there was a degree of trepidation when she had previously met farmers at her first NFU Scotland conference earlier in the year. But she was “really heartened by the positivity” from the sector. She hoped this good feeling would continue as SNH look for “twin benefits of business and the environment” for the rural sector.

Roger Polson Putting the challenge into farming

Northeast farmer Roger Polson addressed the conference to highlight the damage done to farming and the environment through overly prescriptive schemes. Roger farms with his wife on the south slope of Knockhill by Huntly in Aberdeenshire.

The farm has been in his wife’s family for three generations and ranges from peatlands with heather, to loam soils through to poor draining heavy wetlands. The 1,100ac is run organically with a mix of crops, cattle, sheep and forestry. On turning organic in 2006 Roger said “it put the challenge back into farming.”

In the 1990s, a part of the farm was declared to be a site of scientific interest (SI) which gave him a bigger insight into the responsibilities which go with land management.

“We take a balanced approach on the farm,” said Roger. “We try not to look at one enterprise in isolation from another. Part of the problems that farmers have built up today is they look at the profitable side and neglect others. It needs to be taken in the round.”

In the last 10 years they have done four carbon assessments and only now are they considered carbon neutral. This is with a number of renewable energy projects and a third of the farm under trees. Roger thinks this means carbon neutral status will be a challenge for the rest of the industry.

The former economics teacher was clear that the development of conservation support has gone down the wrong route as its too prescribed. He called for “a major rethink in the way conservation support is given to farmers.”

“The regulations surrounding the current AEC Scheme and the Rural Priorities Scheme, to me appears to be designed to be easy to administer but difficult for the farmers to successfully utilise,” said Roger.

“There is no recognition of the achievements that are being made. We need to think how we reward farmers for achieving an objective as opposed to just going down the route of trying to hit a target whether or not it’s achieved it.”

Previous flexibilities on grazing SI sites have allowed the environment and farmers to work together but new rules makes it nearly impossible according to Roger. He advised that new schemes need to be outcome based where the Government checks if the land is maintained properly not strict numbers of cattle allowed into fields on certain dates.

“The last scheme we had to put down 40 cows after 1 September and they must be removed by the 30 October,” said Roger. He felt farming doesn’t work like that. He pointed out that the family had been looking after the site of scientific interest very well since 1926 so should be given more trust.

Roger told the conference that farmers need help with education and support on how to carry out environmental improvements successfully but don’t need a prescription on how to do it.

They need to agree an objective then let the farmer get on and achieve it, was his point of view.

Finishing on an upbeat note, Roger pointed out that with Brexit we have a fantastic opportunity to make the needed changes to ensure it works.

David Aglen Focus on improving soils

The next guest speaker was farmer manager David Aglen of Balbirnie Estate on the south side of the Howe of Fife. He manages a 1,200ha farm made up of 750ha of combinable crops, 150ha of veg and potatoes, 300ha of grass for 250 cows and an additional 350ha forestry. He acknowledged that the sandy loam soil was some of the best in Scotland before explaining that the estate ranges from 200 to 1,250 feet above sea level.

David has focused heavily on improving their soils on the farm to increase output and environmental benefit. “I have always been a believer of looking after the soil. That’s where the money comes from,” he explained.

They recently bought a no-till seed drill for £70,000 and conceded that the challenge of using it has meant they have lost significant amounts of money in the first few years calling some fields a “spectacular failure”. Very few smaller businesses would be able to withstand such an expensive learning curve, but he thinks they are on the right track now and doesn’t want to switch back.

They have also moved to smaller and lighter tractors which have reduced costs and compaction of the soil. Further, due to GPS systems in tractors he has started sowing tram lines. The tractors still go up over the same lines in the field only there is crop underneath. The big win is stabilising the soil and reducing erosion, however, the crop under the tracks is slower to ripen so some greener crop will go through the combine. There are pros and cons to the system but David was clear it’s working for them but “you need to want to make it work”.

They are also looking to integrate livestock back into the arable system. Over the years the cattle have moved to the more marginal land, with the crops on the best. This has reduced organic matter in the soil so they have started out-wintering cows. This year they out-wintered 150 cattle on kale grown on sandy loam soil.

To further improve the soil, all of the farm’s CAP Greening obligation is fulfilled by green cover crops. He also took the radical decision to put sheep on his winter barley when it was young. He says that this improved the crop and last year they did it with oats and got a bumper yield.

Bryce Cunningham From the motoring sector to the farming sector

Next up was the inspirational Bryce Cunningham from Mossgiel farm in Ayrshire, who told the conference how he came from the motoring sector to running a family dairy farm. Bryce explained after leaving school he worked in a Mercedes garage for 10 years before discovering his father was terminally ill and that the family farm would have to be handed back to the landlord after 70 years. After significant deliberation Bryce decided to come home and run the 80-cow dairy unit. Within six months of his father’s death the milk price fell from 28p/litre to 9p/litre. Despite the cows yielding 30-35/litres of milk a day the bank manager called explaining the dairy business could not afford to continue and a new business plan was needed.

Along with other local dairy farmers, Bryce campaigned to the public about the price of milk to producers. Through this Bryce recognised that the public wanted to pay a fair price for local real milk, only there were very few outlets. He then decided to cut the cows down to 30 but to sell all milk direct to the consumer by pasteurising on the farm. Bryce pointed out that due to the large abundance of different milk products being made from modern milk, even whole milk, is heavily processed. A much simpler system was to be Bryce’s unique selling point which allowed real whole milk to be with consumers four hours after leaving the cow.

A previous occupant of the farm, Robert Burns, wrote in his diary at the time, Mossgiel has very heavy clay soils. The land remains the same nearly 250 years later but gone are the oats and neeps with all the land now turned to pasture for grazing cattle out all summer and making silage for winter. There is a drive on the farm to improve the silage to reduce the need for concentrates over winter. Bryce has now decided to take on his next challenge of becoming organic with the Scottish Organic Producers Association, which he admits is a challenge but has improved the diversity in the sward already. Bryce’s environmental focus is helping improve the farm and allowing his milk brand go from strength to strength.

Teyl van Walre de Bordes The abundance of wildlife

Finally Teyl van Walre de Bordes the factor at Whitmuir Estate near Selkirk explained to the group the sheer abundance of wildlife on a farm if you manage for it and look closely. The Estate lets the productive land out but takes advantage of a number of environmental programmes and lets out holiday cottages. Since starting to focus on nature the estate has gone from five to 40,00+ orchids. They have 92 species of birds, 600 species of fungi, 130 lichens, 251 moths and 112 mosses and liverworts, which brings the total to over 1,400 different species on the farm.