Member Spotlight - Windshiel Farm

Windshiel Farm (Winners of the Sheep Farmers of the Year at the Scottish Agricultural Awards) is in the Lammermuir hills in Berwickshire, 1000ft above sea level at its peak, and now holds a head of 750 Lleyn and Lleyn cross sheep, 60 Aberdeen Angus cows, a handful of rare breed pigs to complement direct sales at the monthly farmers market in Portobello, and a small flock of pedigree Dorsets.

We became organic in 2001 and we are now entering into a shared farming contract agreement with a farm that’s converting to an organic system, with we aim to up the stock numbers overall to 1400 ewes and over 100 cattle.

The farm works on a completely outdoor system, utilising rotational and deferred grazing and forage crops to outwinter stock. Fields on which cattle are outwintered on will then go into arable silage the following spring. This arable silage is under sown with grass and provides a good nurse crop for the grass especially if conditions are dry. There is a main focus on grass and soil quality to convert kilos of dry matter to kilos of meat as efficiently as possible, with an increase in herbal leys and sward diversity helping lamb and ewe performance.

The lambs are fattened at home and sold direct with Farmstock, and the cattle are sold as stores at 17 months. This year we have welcomed an apprentice through Borders Machinery Ring to help with the increased workload, whilst also sharing knowledge and experience of working on a family-run livestock farm. We are also in the process of diversifying into the tourism market whilst converting an unused barn into a holiday let, this has been another learning curve in itself.

‍

To read our Q&A with Joe from Windshiel click here to download the full document.

‍

If you would be interested in sharing your story please contact Becky MacAngus at becky.macangus@sopa.org.uk

‍