Don’t over complicate things and have a business plan were the two key take-home messages at this year’s New Entrants to farming gathering at Perth Race course. The event was run by SAC through the Farm Advisory Scotland. Through eight talks the 120 young and new farmers who attended got an insight into what it takes to make it in the food and farming sector today. From the speakers, it was clear that just sticking to what previous generations did isn’t an option for new entrants.

Maureen Muldowney, a share-farmer from Dumfries gave an inspiring talk on setting up a dairy farm in the southwest. Maureen and her husband Brendan moved to Scotland in 2011 and are now involved in three grass-based dairies running 1,650 cows. They run a partnership model with other young people who have a share of the profits of the business.

One of the key parts of success was to get good advice. Maureen explained: “We set out to meet all the great dairy farmers in the industry, all the ones you aspire to be like. We got a great insight. We can now pick up the phone and get advice when we need it. It’s important to remember that people have done this before us.”

Michael Shannon offered an inspirational talk on how he built the Damn Delicous Ltd company he runs. Having no farm to return to after college, Michael initially planned to milk cows and become a farm manager. However he worked for a seed company for 20 years, working up the ladder. In 1996 he achieved a life time ambition of buying his own farm. Then in 2007, he went full-time farming and started up his own meat business.

Another inspired talk came from Gordon Whiteford who told the conference how, along with his wife June they built their business from 3ac in 2005. They initially focused on producing organic eggs before gaining the tenancy to a 130ac farm tenancy in 2012, where they now run a small-scale beef and sheep enterprise with plans to venture into dairying.

Lost skill

Jim Booth, head of co-op development at SAOS spoke to attendees to stress that co-operation can be a way to unlock success in farming. “From my experience, it is a natural thing for farmers to work together. This is from neighbouring to membership of a formal co-op.

“There is a lost skill in neighbouring. Only 25% of farmers are involved in neighbouring when 80-90% did this three generations ago. This can be sharing labour or machines or could be mentoring. People are willing to help or recognise to help. It’s worth saying – it’s a two-way street. Young people offer enthusiasm, they are tech-savvy and good at filling out forms for older farmers.”

Changes to the definition of a new entrant and how they are supported was discussed by Lee-Ann Sutherland from the Hutton Institute. She explained she has been working on EU projects to look at the impact of the current support measures to get more new and young people farming. She explained that they were recommending that a new entrant should have access to grants for longer than five years from when they commence agricultural activity. Also she said her work had looked at raising the age of a young farmer to 45 from 40 currently

Kerry Allison from the food and drink team at SAC gave a talk on branding. She said that brands need a personality and a story if they are to succeed. The most important thing is to explain why you are in business to your consumers. She said you can’t just say “to make money” as it will turn off consumers. She gave examples of Ogalvy Vodka, which was initially a way to utilising unsold vegetables. Now the vodka is the biggest part of the farm business. The second business Arbikie Single Estate Gin has utilised the premium offered to drinks with a good back story. The low-alcohol or no-alcohol sector is growing 55% in 2018 which is a massive opportunity for Scottish brewers she believes.

Bob Prentice who runs Downfield farm with his wife at Cupar in Fife, spoke to the group about his business. They run a mixed stock and arable farm where they rear suckler cows, sheep and red deer. They operate an on-farm abattoir where they slaughter deer, sheep and goats as well as butchery. The business processes 2,000 farmed animals and 2,000 wild animals each year. From a small start they now kill 40 deer per week along with 60 to 100 sheep. They have just started goat farming this spring. Chair of Lantra in Scotland and chair of the Farm Opportunities for New Entrants program, Henry Graham also spoke. He discussed the announcement on the new land available to new farmers from the Scottish Government.

The conference was asked to answer questions on new entrants in farming. Here are the results:

  • The biggest block to farming was money and finance, then equal second were parents and a lack of confidence and skills.
  • The majority of attendees were either already farming or hoped to be within the next five years.
  • New entrants are split nearly 50/50 between utilising new technologies like calving aids, cameras and EID readers and finding new technology too expensive.
  • 48% of attendees admitted they didn’t know where to start with getting a business plan together. Another 28% has something written down but lacked detail and the rest had a full business plan which was just waiting for an opportunity.
  • Nearly three quarters of the attendees wanted to be beef and sheep farmers. The second most popular option was pigs and broiler chickens followed by arable. Fruit and veg tied in third place.
  • Alex Dunnings, Edinburgh SRUC student from Oban

    “It’s been a good day particularly for speaking to people and making contacts. Michael Shannon stood out as a speaker this morning. He was inspiring to listen to, to hear how he has built his business up. From the talk I learned the importance of business planning. It is vital and it needs to have detail.”

    Kerry Cartwright, student at Aberdeen from Invergordon

    “Very interesting morning showing the different ways to get into farming. I learned a lot about getting livestock and working in a partnership. It’s nice to hear there are opportunities to get into the sector without too much assets. I’d like to be a farmer but I will probably need to have a career first.”

    Callum Wood, Kirkliston and Lawrence Milne from Tillicoultry both students at SRUC Oatridge

    Lawrence: “As a new entrant myself I found this morning brilliant. We go to a lot of talks like this with the SRUC and this has been one of the best. Everything we are learning is relevant. Maureen’s talk about keeping your business simple was great.”

    Callum: “It’s good seeing how others do things. You don’t have to do it in the traditional way to get a start. This would be a relevant talk to my dad who has been farming for ages.”