Extreme weather comes with the territory for the Duffus family, who run a suckler beef and sheep farm that stretches to 1540ha of hill ground. Of this, just over 80ha would be considered to be ploughable.

The farmyard sits at 1,150ft above sea level and reaches just over 2,200ft at the summit of the farmland. The fact that the farm backs up onto Lecht 2090, the Cairngorms ski slope, emphasises just how rugged this farming terrain can be.

Grass growth usually takes off in late April or early-May, with growth typically tailing off again in early- to mid-September. This means that there is quite a short growing season and as a result, a long winter period.

Table 1 shows the average monthly temperature and precipitation for the area. Average temperatures in eight months of the year are single figures, with December, January and February averaging just slightly above freezing. Night time temperatures often go below -10° in the depths of winter.

Fitting the system

Where some livestock would struggle to survive, let alone thrive in such an environment, having the correct stock type is of utmost importance to allow the Duffus family to run a profitable farm enterprise. Since 2017, the family have been participating in the Farmers Journal/Aberdeen and Northern Marts (ANM Group), Farm Profit Programme, similar to the BETTER farm programme in Ireland.

This has seen the family take a new direction with their farm systems. Prior to the programme, the farm ran about 90, primarily Simmental and Limousin cross suckler cows, split evenly between spring and autumn calving. Alongside this, the farm also ran a flock of 500 Blackface ewes and 250 Mules.

Hill cows

Over the last few years the focus has been on putting a smaller, more hardy cow in place that can make better use of the farm’s own resources. This has seen a 50- cow hill herd established. These are a mixture of Highland, and Shorthorn cross Highland cows. They are able to convert poorer quality grazing on the hill and build up enough condition over the summer months to see them through the long winter.

This also makes better use of the hill ground and frees up more of the in-bye grassland for the autumn-born stock, allowing the Duffus’ to concentrate on making high quality silage for autumn calving cows.

The hill cows are outwintered in sheltered areas of the farm and supplemented with silage bales. The family hopes to take the 75% Shorthorn cross heifers from the hill herd into the autumn herd – calving down for the first time at two and a half years old. Eventually, the plan is to run up to 150 spring calving hill cows and 50 autumn calving cows. All other young stock will be sold store at a year to 18 months old.

New shed

Last year, a new straw bedded cattle shed was erected on farm. As always, the weather conditions must be taken into consideration with every decision. Vented sheeting was selected over Yorkshire boarding, as in blizzard conditions, snow can be blown in through the Yorkshire boards.

Water heater

Another issue can be water troughs and keeping them flowing in sub-zero conditions. All water pipes are lagged and buried where possible. Drinkers in the new shed were fitted with trace heating frost protection kits on each of the water troughs. This system sees a thermostat fitted on the wall high above each drinker. Once the temperature drops to zero, the heaters kick in to ensure the water does not freeze. The kit uses a self-regulating trace heating cable, which limits its output per metre by using a variables resistive compound to prevent overheating and ensure efficient operation.