Increased stocking rate and simplifying the farming system were the key messages from the Farmers Journal’s first virtual farm tour in Scotland. As COVID-19 restrictions are still in place, farm meetings are not allowed, so the Farmers Journal decided to take the experience online. The evening meeting was held for the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Strichen Club, with viewers getting a tour of Mains of Cranna farm, Aberdeenshire, and a talk from farmers Arthur and Scott Duguid. The Duguids are part of the Farmers Journal’s Farm Profit Programme in Scotland, which along with Aberdeen Northern Marts and the Scottish government, is improving farm margins, similar to the Better Farm Programme in Ireland.

The tour showed several videos of the 164ha farm, which runs 160 sucker cows, 300 ewes and grows 34ha of winter barley. The young farmers were impressed with the improved grassland management on the farm, with paddock systems now in place alongside more fodder crops, allowing for earlier turnout and cheaper wintering.

The farm has added a third of a cow more per hectare and increased ewe density from 16 per hectare to 21 per hectare. This has resulted in an average gross margin per hectare of £714 for cattle and £981 for sheep.

Cattle

One of the changes suggested early in the programme was to delay the start of spring-calving from March into April, to have cows calving in sync with grass growth. Initially, Arthur was worried that a later calving date would mean reduced calf weights come sale the following year, but the opposite has proven true, as weights rose. Calves are sold at around 11 months old and between 2016 and 2019, sale weights increased from an average of 404kg to 444kg.

Meanwhile, weaning rates have also improved from 78% to 84%. The rate has been as high as 91% during the project, but several calves were lost to respiratory disease last year. The herd health plan has since been updated to tackle this, with calves vaccinated in early life to prevent infection.

The barren rate in the cows has also dropped from 7% to 4%. Combining the increase in the weaning rate and sale weight, output per cow has risen by £103/head, despite the average price per kg liveweight sales falling by 19p to 223p/kg.

Unfortunately, while the output increased, the rising cost of bedding (4ft round bales went from £5 to £20) and feed meant that gross margin per cow fell £16.

However, when the 0.17 LU/ha increase in stocking rate is factored in, the gross margin per hectare for the spring cows has risen by £23 to £557/ha.

While calf sale value is back £17/head due to reduced price, output per cow is up £113 thanks to more calves on the ground

The 70 autumn-calving cows calve between October and December. Calves are weaned in mid-July and are sold the following January at around 14 months old. The sale weights in this group have been static, but the weaning rate has risen from 82% to 92% over the course of the programme. While calf sale value is back £17/head due to reduced price, output per cow is up £113 thanks to more calves on the ground. This has helped the Duguids lift their gross margin per head from their autumn herd, from £185/cow to £478/cow. Coupling this with the 0.52 LU/ha increase in stocking rate to 1.82 LU/ha, gross margin per hectare has risen by £483 to £869.

Duguid spring cows.

Prior to the programme, calvings would have occurred in most months of the year. By setting defined bulling periods, calving now takes place in two distinct 10-12 week batches. The plan is for this to be reduced to nine – 10 week batches for the future. This has allowed a great deal of simplification on the farm and has improved the family’s quality of life.

Crops

Another simplification was stopping growing spring barley. Winter barley has always been the mainstay of the cropping on the farm, with spring barley only making up 8-10 ha. This has saved additional time in the spring and reduced hassle in the autumn.

The move to winter cropping has also allowed an increase in forage crops for carrying stock through winter.

Fodder beet.

Turnips, fodder beet, hybrid kale and forage rye are all grown on the farm to shorten and cheapen winter for the cattle and sheep.

In 2018, the thin cows housed and fed on straw and silage were costing £1.94/day in feed and bedding, and the fattest cows were fed on straw and urea syrup costing £1.55 per day. Contrast this with the fit cows, outwintered on the kale hybrid costing £1.11 per day.

Sheep

The increase in the sheep stocking rate has been driven by the adoption of rotational grazing. 10ha – 15ha of new grass is sown out each year and the ewes graze it in the first year. Not only is this putting quality feed in front of lactating ewes, it is also giving worm-free clean grazing for the lambs.

When this is combined with the lambs now being weaned around 12 – 14 weeks old, lamb performance has also increased markedly, with the majority of the prime lambs leaving the farm by the end of the year. Previously, they would have been carried on the turnips into the new year and sold in the spring.

The improved grassland management has also helped make better use of fertiliser

However, by getting the lambs out of the system earlier, the turnips are now free for ewes to graze. This takes them off the grass fields over winter, giving a greater cover of grass into the spring to aid with lambing and turnout the following year.

The improved grassland management has also helped make better use of fertiliser, with 6t carried over from the normal order in 2019 to 2020.

With the intital meeting having been a success, further virtual meetings are planned for the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for details.