Andrew Mackay works in partnership with his brother Joe and his father Andrew Sr. Andrew’s brother Iain supports them with mechanical repairs as well as looking after the cattle when the contracting is busy. There are two sides to business at West Greenland: agricultural contracting and livestock farming.

Cattle and sheep farming

The Mackays’ farm comprises of the West Greenland home farm made up of 600ac, and Mount Pleasant, near Thurso, which is 250ac. An additional 100ac to 150ac are rented seasonally, and the family also produce around 280ac of spring barley.

There is a large cattle shed at Mount Pleasant in which all cows and weaned calves are housed and calved on slatted courts. A further 120 cattle are housed on bedded courts. At West Greenland all cattle are on straw courts, which can accommodate 380 fattening cattle.

There are 120 suckler cows and replacements, predominantly Simmentals, with both Simmental bulls and Angus bulls used on the cows.

West Greenland strives to have a narrow calving window, with 60% of their cows calving throughout March, with an aim for calving to be finished before silage.

Any beast not putting on enough weight to stay on the farm goes. They get two weigh-ins and if they’re still not performing, they go

“We were lucky to be cutting around 200ac per week. This year we can cut up to 200ac of silage in a day,” said Andrew.

As well as their suckler herd, around 300 to 400 store cattle are bought and fattened each year, the majority of which are bought using the local mart, Quoybrae, part of Aberdeen and Northern Marts. Most of the store cattle bought are Charolais crosses as Andrew finds “they convert food very well and always come to weight”. However, the Mackays are happy to buy any animal that can be fattened.

For Andrew, health is a priority when buying store cattle. “We’re looking for them to be healthy and vaccinated. A lot of farmers aren’t paying enough attention to health, and should be looking at issues like fluke and pneumonia.”

Reaching deadweight

Store cattle are bought at around 460 to 470kg and are sold when they reach 700kg in order to reach the desired deadweight, with their weight being monitored closely.

“Every two weeks the cattle are weighed. Any beast not putting on enough weight to stay on the farm goes. They get two weigh-ins and if they’re still not performing, they go,” said Andrew.

The store cattle are housed on bedded courts all year round and fed on a diet of hard feed for around 100 days, using a combination of barley and Harbro’s Champion 35. All fat cattle are sold through Caithness Livestock Breeders (CLB), a farmer-owned co-operative, with the cattle mostly going on to McIntosh Donald or Stoddarts of Ayr.

West Greenland is also home to 500 sheep, predominantly North Country Hill Cheviot and Texel crosses, with Suffolk and Texel rams being used. The lambing has to be indoors due to the nature of the weather and takes place at the end of March and into April. Fat lambs are also sold through CLB with store lambs sold at Quoybrae.

Agricultural contracting

West Greenland Contracting is based near Castletown in Caithness, a few short miles from the UK’s most northerly point, Dunnet Head.

The business began when Andrew Sr began contracting with a tractor and square baler in the 1960s, before going on to precision silage in the mid to late 1970s, and the demand for silage contracting continued from there.

The biggest problem we have is getting parts for machinery. If a piece of machinery breaks down we’re very lucky if we get the part the next day. We’re even lucky if we get it the day after

Andrew has been with the contracting business since he left school. There are three members of staff: Keith Bremner, Bryan Mowat and Murray Coghill, as well as up to 10 members of staff who work part-time or seasonally.

During the summer, they mow and chop nearly 3,000ac of silage with more being mowed for silage and hay bales. Significantly more hay has been made this year. In total, around 1,000 to 1,500ac of grass reseeds are also completed each year.

The firm has been combining over the last 25 to 30 years with between 1,800 to 2,000 acres of combining carried out each year – predominantly for malting and feeding barley and oats.

Andrew believes that the average farm size in Caithness is around 350ac with between 60 to 80 cows. Like many rural areas, agriculture forms a crucial part of the local economy and both farming and contracting in a remote area can bring its own set of challenges.

The team contracting in Durness - one of the farthest away places they operate. \ Murray Coghill

“We are up here in a very remote part of the UK, and it’s a fragile area,” said Andrew.

He added: “Caithness is an island separated by land. The biggest problem we have is getting parts for machinery. If a piece of machinery breaks down we’re very lucky if we get the part the next day. We’re even lucky if we get it the day after.

“You could have anything up to eight, nine men standing waiting for the machine to get up and running. Regularly we have had to go and get parts ourselves; I was in Dumfries twice last year to get parts for a forager.

“We’ve run to Edinburgh regularly, just to get parts for that machine, but you have to get that machine going. The farmers are reliant on the weather and they’re reliant on us to make their winter feed.”

Inevitably, the weather has a direct impact on business, with a noticeable contrast being felt in recent years. Discussing the effects of the wet 2015 summer, Andrew said: “We were lucky to be cutting around 200 acres per week. This year we can cut up to 200 acres of silage in a day with 120 to 130 acres per day being around the average.”

Andrew believes that silage yields are down throughout the country, with some farms having around 10 to 15% less silage.

On their farm, the Mackays are using draff and effluent byproducts from the nearby Wolfburn Distillery in Thurso.

Andrew added: “We use the draff on our own suckler cows and we spread all the effluent on our own land. The land is tested before and after applications, using soil samples to calculate the applications.”

The family also process around 300t of farm-saved seed each winter at their West Greenland grain store.

Emphasising that every job matters, Andrew explained that West Greenland Contracting will cover a large area of the north of Scotland, travelling as far as four hours by tractor to complete work, such as Helmsdale in Sutherland and Durness on the northwest coast.

Andrew cutting down silage for Geordie and Willie Cormack, who farm at Wester, Brough, just a few miles from Dunnet Head.

West Greenland machinery inventory

  • Tractors: all John Deere 7260r, 6155r, 6630, 2x6330 (1 with loader), 6320.
  • Self-propelled forager: Claas Jaguar 950
  • Combines: all Claas, Lexion 570+, Lexion 550, Lexion 460 evo.
  • Telescopic Loaders: JCB 531.70, JCB 536.60, JCB 416s loading shovel.
  • Two Kverneland 5 furrow reversible ploughs.
  • 6m grain and fertiliser Lemken Solitair 9.
  • 4m grain and fertiliser Solitair 8.
  • Claas 2900 rake.
  • Two Claas Rollant balers.
  • Four 14t Agrimac grain/silage trailers.
  • 14t Bailey grain silage trailer.
  • 25t Cheiftain dump trailer.
  • 120hd Bunnings muck spreader.
  • 2,500 gallon Redrock slurry tanker.
  • Land Rover Defender 90 and a 110, Ford Ranger, VW Amarok.
  • Various cultivators, rollers and slurry pumps.