Life on the Farm

Hi everyone, I’m Sophie and I’m the new member of the SRN team.  

I joined the Scottish Government in 2019 starting as an Agricultural Officer within the Rural Payments and Inspections Division and was responsible for carrying out sheep and cattle inspections, capital grant inspections and general enquiries relating to the farming sector and current schemes. My role also involved working with farmers and external stakeholders, building strong relationships where possible.

Previous to working for the Scottish Government I was a qualified Registered Veterinary Nurse for six years and trained in practice for two years before qualifying. I worked with the general public on a daily basis as well as doing patient anaesthetics, blood tests and x-rays, to name but a few.

My role within the SRN involves building relationships with other teams in the Scottish Government and external stakeholders to help communities and the rural sector benefit from what schemes and grants are available.  However, additional to my role within Scottish Government my husband Gavin and I are farmers.  

I have come up with an idea of writing a monthly blog for our website to give you all an insight of what we have been doing on our farm as well as some background as to why we do what we do.

Both myself and Gavin have jobs out with the farm as well, this is because as the farm stands it would not be able to pay all of the bills on its own.  Gavin works as a Dairy sales rep for an agricultural farming supplier, and I work from home. 

We live on our farm with our 3 year old son and Jack Russell Midge in south west Scotland, outside a small town called Galston.  We own 100 acres of land on our farm, but we also rent in 150 acres. This is for our 130 head of beef cattle and their calves along some sheep which we winter on our ground. 

We grow our own silage, so have fields set aside for that during the spring and summer months.  This allows the nutritious grass to grow and be cut and stored either in our silage clamp or as bales to feed the cattle when housed during the winter months.  To ensure we grow as nutritious grass as possible for them, we have soil and grass samples taken.  This tells us what nutrition is there and what/ if any fertiliser is needed.  It also tells us when the best time is for us to cut our silage, ensuring we do not miss out on the much needed nutrients.

We breed our cows and sell their calves on at about a year old.  These calves tend to go to market to be sold on either for breeding or to be fattened for the food chain.  To help increase our stock numbers over the years, we have kept some of our heifer (female) calves and they have become part of our herd.  The breeds of the cows we have are mostly mixed beef breeds which include Herefords, Angus, Limousins, Simmentals and Shorthorns.  This allows us to breed calves which have what we call a good caucus but also means the cows produce a good amount of milk to mother their calves well.  We cover them with bulls which are normally either Charolais or Shorthorn but this year we have bought our first Saler bull.  Again these bulls tend to be well shaped, giving good meat density which in the long run gives a good steak for your plate.

The reason we have as many bulls is mostly because we try to keep our calving time tight, rather than calving throughout the year.  So this means if we cover smaller amounts of our cows with one bull, we can tighten the time the bull is with the cows and he is able to do his job quicker.  Then when it comes to calving, we need to take less time off work.

As many farmers will tell you, our cows are our livelihood.  We know our girls and they all have different personalities. Farming is a lifestyle and not just a job, but it is a business too so times can get tough as being a business person in the climate we are in is critical.  Gav checks the cows as soon as he is up in the morning, there are calves to feed and at the moment there are cows calving so there are some little surprises for us.  On my lunch break, I feed the bull who is getting ready for the sales and check the calving cows for any new additions and hopefully no problems.  Every night Gav and his dad are out feeding calves again, checking cows and getting jobs done in preparation for winter coming and the cows coming in.  Weekends are also very busy with jobs needing done.

Next month I will be able to tell you about our bull who has gone to the market and how life will be changing again for the winter!