Organic Cereal Growers Network - Farm Walk

Scotston Farm is 480ha (180ha moorland)farmed by three Baird brothers Diarmid, Dougal and Euan, and has been organic since 1988.

The group walked around multiple fields which were mostly multi crops. 2023 crops include spring oats, winter wheat, winter rye, triticale, oil seed rape and grass for suckler cows, sheep and laying hens also on the farm.  Novel crops being grown in 2023: rye, triticale, lupins, plus a four-way multispecies crop on trial in conjunction with Hutton Institute. Pete Iannetta, Head of Ecological Food Systems at The Hutton is leading the research on the four-crop trial and joined us for the farm walk to explain what the trial is looking to achieve and why it is important for agriculture.  The four crops used for the trial are lupins, wheat, peas and beans, so imagine the challenge of working out seed rate, coordinating harvest time and crop separation.

Special emphasis is given to growing crops to develop a home-grown high protein hen feed to reduce the reliance on bought in feeds and avoid imported soya in the layers ration.

The farm is heated and powered by a wood chip gasifier that runs the grain drier and pullet rearing sheds.

On display was the shallow plough and demonstrations of the camera-guided weeder and compost wind-rowing in action were given.

We were lucky enough to have David Cunningham from Dodseed along to the meeting too and he gave some great insights into the crops, manure production and weed control.

The day was rounded off perfectly with a venison burger which was supplied by the Bairds and BBQ'd by The Kirkstyle Inn Events. We would like to say a huge thank you to the family for having us along and giving us such an enthusiastic tour of their wonderful farm.  

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This network is supported by SOPA and AHDB Scotland and is open to any Scottish Organic farmers or farmers interested in conversion, so if you are interested in joining the group please don’t hesitate to contact us. We like to think the group is all about knowledge exchange, none of us has all the answers but we are all learning from each other and because of that the network is a very valuable platform for growth.

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