New Ayrshire Monitor Farm – Rowanston

The Andrew brothers – John and James – of Rowanston, Maybole, Ayrshire are well known across the region and further a field as sheep shearers, sheepmen and grafters Their dawn to dusk work ethic over the years has paid off, with the brothers now farming independently with their respective families

Elder brother John, has kept the home farm of Rowanston (above) and the tenanted hill farm, Blair, while James bought Monkwoodmill Farm at Minishant

John and his son David (23) are the new Monitor Farmers for Ayrshire, joining another eight farms across the country.

The inaugural meeting, at the end of November, saw around eighty farmers from near and far and local suppliers converge on the beef and sheep property, which lies on the B7023 between Crosshill and Maybole, south of Ayr.

Quality Meat Scotland Chair, Kate Rowell, who has been through the Monitor Farm process at her own farm near Peebles, opened the meeting

The new, four-year Monitor Farm programme is farmer-led and farmer-driven, with support from s pecialists and experts to assess farm performance, explore opportunities and develop solutions to the challenges faced by the nine farms taking part in the initiative Funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by Quality Meat Scotland and AHDB, it aims to help to farms reach full economic, social and environmental sustainability by optimising production

“Agriculture is going through challenging times with spiralling input costs,” says John. “It is important to build a sustainable yet profitable business going forward and we hope the

Monitor Farm programme can help us achieve this.”

Rowanston, which was purchased by John’s grandfather in 1950 operated as a dairy farm until 1990 Suckler cows were introduced at that juncture

By 1996 the Andrew family had secured the tenancy of Blair, a 1350 hill farm rented on a Modern Limited Duration Tenancy from Kilkerran Estate

Over the years John and his brother James used contract sheep shearing as a means to significantly increase sheep numbers They were renowned for putting in long hours on the hand-piece

A further 101 neighbouring acres were purchased in 2009 – Knockroon Numerous other holdings and fields across Ayrshire were also rented to graze their ever increasing sheep flock.

“We split up the business two years ago for the next generation,” explained John “As James was left with mainly

Eilidh MacPherson

rented land, we paid him out so he could buy his own farm.”

Many farming families will be aware of the difficulties entailed with a farming business split – with the need to rebuild stock numbers and the financial burden

Fittingly, son David, an Accounting and Finance graduate has been full time at home for the past two years He has followed on the family tradition of sheep shearing, taking out the Young Farmers Title at the 2022 Royal Highland Show He has some of his own sheds but also shears with Cammy Wilson of the Sheep Game

David is the driving force behind the move to join the Monitor Farm program, but is fully supported by his father “We look forward to making use of new technologies and fine tuning cattle and sheep diets to make our business more efficient and share results with other farmers. If at the end of the programme we have developed a business with an improved carbon footprint while still producing quality Scotch produce, which leaves us a good profit for doing so, then the whole experience will have been a great success, ”commented David

Pedigree Charollais sheep were lambing when I returned in early December to take photographs at

Rowanston “We breed our own Charollais tups, which are used as the terminal sire on both the hill and lowground ewes. We sell a few select tup lambs at the main society sale at Worcester with most of the commercial tups sold off farm as natural grass fed shearlings Logie tups are now used on the Lairg type Cheviot ewes to produce replacements for the lowground flock,” informed John as we drove the couple of miles up to the hill farm – Blair

Cross ewe lambs from the hill flock are used as replacements to run on the low ground, numbering 450 ewes All lambs are fattened at Rowanston, aiming to finish as many as possible off grass Root crops and feed hoppers are then brought into the picture

But it was the cattle enterprises that were under the microscope on day one of the four-year Monitor Farm programme. John and David headed a group each, discussing their beef farming practices

On the cattle front, the 150 strong herd is split 50:50 for spring and autumn calving The majority are housed on durable slats from Irish firm Woolsey Concrete and mats for comfort

All offspring is finished and the bulk heads direct to hang up at Highland Meats at Saltcoats, while handy weight heifers are sold to the local butcher trade through Ayr market.

The Andrews also buy in 200 head of store cattle to finish from Craig Wilson at Ayr. They weigh the bought in cattle and last year the bullocks averaged a daily live weight gain of 1 3kgs and the heifers 1 25kgs Bullocks hang up at 360-380 kgs and mainly fall into the R4L bracket

The farm has a cattle handling system, but there were suggestions that it could be streamlined for ease of use, while the crush, which has weigh cells, is waiting for repair after being damaged The farmers present suggested integrating the crush and weighing technology with an improved handling system and Cattle Electronic Identification (EID) It would help the Andrews to record and assess where efficiencies could be made And that they should also record the homebred stock not just the purchased stores

The hill at Blair is fully utilized but David and John feel at certain times of year, such as when the bull is out and when the heifers are calving, time is wasted on such large tract of land Suggestions to use No Fence technology were put forward, to keep the herd tighter.

The Andrews, who run a variety of breeds, including the hardy Luing, breed their own replacements “For the first turn we use Simmental or Saler bulls and then Charolais or Limousins,” said John

Previously when using first cross dairy cows they scanned a high barren percentage. This has improved significantly by keeping homebred heifers from the hardier type breeds including the Luing

The farming contingent present, thought that there were too many cattle breeds on farm and reckoned that they should pick the best 25% of the herd and put them to a maternal bull and use a Charolais or similar on the bottom end

On the feed front John has concocted his own pre-mixed feed, using mainly home grown feeds including draff and breadcrumbs Farmers noted that spending a couple of days preparing the feed mix in the summer, really saved on man hours in the short winter days Given the rising cost of feed and variance in daily live weight gains, it was recommended that the silage should be analysed for energy and protein content so nutrition could be better targeted

The Andrews enjoyed their first taste of their Monitor Farm journey and look forward to the interaction and feedback from farmers and suppliers over the years to come

Farm businesses at the Rowanston meeting were encouraged to sign up to be part of the Management Group who would supply data, information and ideas that will lead to change and better resilience for the Monitor Farmer and themselves Over the next month or two the Monitor Farm project at Rowanston will be:

• Collecting and collating data and information on the Monitor Farm;

• Establishing the Management Group, a wider Community Group who will provide support, and collaborating with two other Monitor Farms in its cluster, which are in Argyll and

Stirlingshire;

• Aiming to have the next meeting in February/March, where attendees will be given a fuller picture of the aims of the Andrew family and will begin introducing ideas, which will improve their bottom line and achieve their ambitions for the farm.

For further information on the next meeting when it is released, and for more detail on the programme and each Monitor Farm visit www monitorfarms co uk or contact the farm’s regional adviser, Christine Cuthbertson on 07769 366671 or email monitorfarm@qmscotland.co.uk

by Eilidh MacPherson