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Spring ‘23 - News from, and for, Scotland’s farmer co-ops

SAOS Members Remain Positive Despite Challenging Times

Our conference at the end of January provided a much needed shot in the arm for those seeking a good catch up and some positivite thinking in the middle of winter. We’d chosen to focus on some of the current problems facing food and farming, in order to show that not only is much already being done - and much of that within our own work and that of our co-op members - but that there are opportunities aplenty for those who are willing to grasp the nettle. As is the SAOS wont, we firmly believe that by working together more effectively so much more can be done, and actually that the current frustration over a lack of policy and direction for agriculture is the most challenging issue of all. We were delighted to read in some of the press coverage of the conference:

This piece in the Courier was centred around findings from our live polling of the audience to test how positive they felt about the prospects for Scottish food and farming over the next ten years. The question was asked twice, before and after our presentations.The initial result showed 51% were “positive”, 14% were “very positive”, 32% were “unsure”, and only 2% felt “negative”. We were delighted that the speakers gave our attendees even more reason for optimism as, when asked the question again, votes for positive and very positive had increased to 73% and 19%!

We heard initially about two of the challenges - Mike Robinson, CEO of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, laid his cards firmly on the table with regard to the effects of climate change on Scotland and the degree of change in agriculture and land use that is required. Andrew Niven of Scotland Food & Drink was up next and focused on how changes in consumer behaviour are impacting on those supplying their food. If anyone was hoping for a ‘silver bullet answer’ to any of the challenges they’d be disppointed but, as suspected, we do have a lot of positives and there’s a lot you can do with the right attitude, confidence in our quality produce and better ammunition to help negotiations with buyers.

The second set of presentations focused on some of the possible solutions, again no silver bullets, but a closer look at some forward thinking, science and savvy, showing that, as usual, Scotland is punching above its weight.

We heard from Prof Alison Hester of the James Hutton Institute about their green hydrogen work at Glenshaugh and its future potential. Adam Christie, MD of Scottish Agronomy, talked about their extensive trials work and findings with regard to emissions and climate change. In our final speaker session, we heard from Richard and Ed Nimmons of Carbon Capture Scotland, which captures carbon emissions and turns them into dry ice for companies such as Donald Russell, Ocado and Patisserie Valerie. Thanks to all who joined us on the day and particularly to our sponsors NFU Mutual and Ledingham Chalmers.

Links to all the presentations and videos are our website at: https://saos.coop/whats-new/news/saos-conference2023-catch-up

Farm Stock’s Vicky Recognised as Rising Star

The SAOS Next Generation Award was presented to Vicky Warcup of Farm Stock (Scotland) at our conference reception.

The biennial award forms part of our work looking at ways to encourage, motivate and recognise younger people involved in rural co-ops, and is presented to a co-op member or employee, who has made an impression with their leadership, vision and commitment to co-operation.

The award was particularly relevant as one of the conference afternoon forum sessions (with James Withers and Elizabeth Barron-Majerik) explored the current employment problems facing industry and how difficult it is to recruit and retain young staff. One issue is allowing them to see a positive and fulfilling career path ahead. Vicky is a a fantastic example of what can be achieved, having joined Farm Stock straight from SAC ten years ago as a trainee, she is now on the Board and jointly manages the co-op. She joined the SAOS Council as our first Next Generation representative, and is now the representative for Farm Stock and we very much value her contribution and sector insight. Well done Vicky!

‘Rauction’ Raises Well Over £2k for RSABI

We give our grateful thanks to everyone who donated, and particularly to those who kindly contributed prizes and bids for our post-conference dinner ‘rauction’ (that’s a slightly-raucousraffle-cum-auction to the uninitiated).

We were absolutely delighted to raise well over £2k for RSABI after gift aid. More than a few smiles were also raised, thanks to the chat from our ‘rauctioneer’ SAOS/Scoteid’s Bob “I’ll tell you a wee story” Yuill, who we feel has definitely missed his calling. Pictured right are Bob being ably assisted by Carol McLaren, Chief Executive of RSABI.

Growing Tomorrow’s Leaders ‘Graduation’

The positive, ‘can-do’ attitude that was mentioned on our cover has also been noticed by The Leadership Factory who have been running our Growing Tomorrow’s Leaders development programme.

This is the first time the trainers have worked with ‘co-opminded people’ and it’s wonderful to hear (unprompted, we should add) that they were really impressed with the attitude and mindset of the group.

The inaugural Growing Tomorrow’s Leaders programme wraps up in March and we’ll be celebrating the graduation at the Landmark Hotel in Dundee, together with our sponsors NFU Mutual and NFU Scotland, who helped make this programme possible. Over a six-month period, participants gained from more than fifty hours of in-person and virtual development across a hybrid model, learning practical leadership skills to meet our current and future challenges and opportunities.

Find out more/register interest at: www.saos.coop/events-and-training/growing-tomorrows-leaders-training

Other SAOS Training News

The newly-added courses for our winter training programme have proved very popular indeed. You can read about the Coaching Workship that was held recently on the opposite page and, as we go to press, the Negotiation and Dispute Resolution Skills course is coming up which is also over-subscribed and has a current waiting list of seven! May is set to be a busy month in our training calendar too, with both Effective Member Communications and Marketing (in person) and The art of the effective chairperson’ (online) both running. Further details of both these will shortly be released on our website at: www.saos.coop/events-and-training/

Jim Booth Updates on a New Intercropping Project

Intercropping - growing two or more companion crops together - has been widely practised by organic farmers for many years. Although less widely used in wider agriculture, Mashlum, a crop mix of cereals and grain legumes (pulses), was once common in Scotland for a bean-oat or pea-oat mix, but lost favour in the ‘50s due to the rapid increase in the use of nitrogen fertiliser. The James Hutton Institute (JHI), amongst others, has been working on intercrops for many years, exploring the multiple potential benefits of intercropping, including:

• Promotion of climate resilience through higher plant resource efficiency - making it a more environmental and climate friendly way of growing crops.

• It’s a good route to building biodiversity by helping reduce inorganic fertiliser and chemical use.

• Improvements in soil health and more integrated pest management (IPM) are also benefits.

• It fits well with ScotGov policy and their future vision for Scottish agriculture

• Demand for sustainable/low carbon food and drink products is growing and will only increase further.

Jim told us: “This is a 4-year EU Horizon Europe project and, as we’re no longer in the EU, the funding is from Innovate UK. There are 27 partners in the project, from 16 different countries. SAOS is the UK’s industry partner and SRUC is the academic partner. Gathering the experiences from others will be fascinating and will help fast-track our own understanding.

“The main aims are to demonstrate the benefits of intercropping and develop high value markets for food and drink products for human consumption from the crops as intercrops have largely been grown for livestock feed. The aim is to develop and showcase these new high-value possibilities and encourage wider future use of intercropping in farming.

There is a particular focus on processors, distributors and retailers, to allow better understanding of the barriers, challenges and key issues along the supply chain and how these can be overcome and developed. We already know some of the challenges to growing intercrops:

• Uncertainty, lack of experience

• Prevalence of weeds

• Lack of clear guidelines

• A separator is needed to harvest different crops and there are also different dates for harvesting

• How best to market innovative new crops for human consumption.

Jim concludes: “We believe that part of the solution will be increased co-operation and collaboration. There are excellent examples of using high-value products grown from intercrops such as Arbikie Distillery, Hodmedods, and Norvite/SCOCAN.

We see opportunities for some of our co-ops to develop new potential markets or simply to keep abreast of developments to support their farmer members.”

Get in touch with jim.booth@saos.coop

Coaching Workshop Explores New Ways To Grow

SAOS’s first coaching workshop ran in February for a group of industry managers whose interest had been piqued. The interactive event was oversubscribed, so there was an excellent turnout on the day, with a wide range of attendees and experiences in the room.

What quickly emerged as a key contributing factor for signing up, was an understanding that management styles have changed a lot over the years, and that there’s a need for new skills to keep up. There were discussions around the challenges of how, with fast-paced, demand-led interactions often dominating the day to day, there is a need to contrast these with something slower, and more individual-led, with coaching conversations an ideal way to get the best from the team.

The starting point for the day was a discussion on the importance of a coaching mindset and highlighting coaching principles, such as the importance of building trust and rapport with whoever you are trying to have a coaching conversation with. There was a live coaching demo between the workshop facilitators, Emma Patterson Taylor and Emma Koubayssi; sessions on the key coaching skills of listening and questioning; as well as lots of time for the managers in the room to practise and learn with particular focus on exploring the ‘GROW’ model coaching structure: Goal - what do you want; Reality - where are you now?; Options - what could you do?; Will - what will you do?

Emma Patterson Taylor told us: “There was fantastic, positive feedback from the day, including a lovely and very on-brand coaching response of: ‘What a way to get you to stop/listen and embrace the silence (it’s not so bad)!’

”We’ve already had expressions of interest for the course to run again, as well as expanding out into other areas where coaching is well placed to provide support and insight, such as when having to have difficult conversations. We’re thrilled the day went so well and look forward to offering more people development soon.”

If you would like to register your interest, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we can start developing our next coaching course to suit you, email emma.koubayssi@saos.coop

United Oilseeds’ Performace Sees Another Record Member Payout

Break crop specialist co-op, United Oilseeds, has announced an 18.19% rise in pre-tax profits to £1,786,207 for the trading year to 30th June 2022.

The co-op’s annual turnover was also up, rising to £174,494,097, from £171,973,546 the previous year, whilst its net worth rose 13.17% to £15,339,963.

Total commodity tonnages traded by United Oilseeds rose by 6.5%, amounting to 421,132 tonnes compared with 395,557 tonnes the previous year. This was reflected in a record £520,000 profits redistribution payment to its trading members.

The new profits payment is an 18.2% increase on last year’s amount and means that United Oilseeds will have paid back over £4 million to its farmer members during the last 10 years.

The co-op has 4,500 farmer members throughout the UK. The previous year, 2020-21, the profits redistribution payment made by United Oilseeds was £440,000, itself a record payment at the time

“We know that our record £520,000 profits share payment to trading farmer members for the financial year 202122 will be widely welcomed and it is a significant benefit of co-operative membership,” said United Oilseeds’ Managing Director, Chris Baldwin. He also highlighted the additional ways in which rapeseed growers can get a better return for their crop and improve their financial bottom line: “Farmers are under a great deal of financial pressure from rising input costs and squeezed margins. It therefore makes sense for oilseed rape growers to use the opportunities available to maximise the potential income they can get for their crop. For example, quality bonuses based on a crop’s admixture, moisture and oil content can make a huge difference to the price they receive.

The Plot Thickens at Scottish Agronomy

With such large percentages being paid for quality bonuses, United Oilseeds pays for independent quality testing and assessment for its customers’ OSR crops, to ensure a fair and accurate calculation of bonuses earned.

United Oilseeds is the UK’s only oilseed rape marketing specialist. In addition to OSR, it also trades linseed, oats, pulses and hybrid rye. It is the parent company of the expanding small seed specialist, Hubbards Seeds, which sells environmental crops, maize and grass.

“This is an outstanding set of results for our co-op,” Chris continued: “We have increased our market-leading share of the UK’s oilseed rape crop marketing and grown our share of the UK’s OSR seed market, whilst significantly increasing sales of other break crops. United Oilseeds has a 30% share of the UK’s oilseed rape market and a similar share of finished crop marketing.

“United Oilseeds has the largest tonnages of oilseed rape under pool management and its marketing pools consistently outperform the average market price. For example, the United Oilseeds Harvest Pool price 2022 achieved £600.49 per tonne delivered. This beats the average delivered market price by £59.76 per tonne. The lowest ex farm price for harvest movement traded as low as £495 per tonne.” Chris concluded. Find out more at www.unitedoilseeds.co.uk

We spotted this on Twitter recently and wanted to get a better understanding of what was entailed at this time of year for the Scottish Agronomy team. Thanks to Adam Christie who provided a few details of the little lot below and the bigger lot in total, which equates to the largest trials programme in the north of the UK.

• Preparations are underway for the drilling of over 10,000 spring-sown plots.

• The team will packet approximately 60 million seeds this Spring.

• These will be sown at five geographically-diverse locations, from the Borders to north of the Black Isle.

• They’ll be company for the 15,000 winter-sown plots that are already in the ground.

Find out more about Scottish Agronomy at: www.scottishagonomy.co.uk

Get in There! Scotland Food & Drink Awards 2023 now open collaboration

Back with a bang last year, the SF&D Excellence Awards celebrate the people, passion, and perseverance of our food and drink industry, and provide an affordable opportunity to gain valuable industry recognition and feedback from leading figures in Scotland’s food and drink sector.

The application closing date is Fri 21 April and the event will take place at the EICC in Edinburgh on Thurs 7 Sept.

More details on entering the awards/attending the event are at: https://excellenceawards.foodanddrink.scot

Potential New Heights for Vertical Farming

Helen Glass, who leads on SAOS’s C2Network, accompanied Grampian Growers on a recent visit to the northeast’s first vertical farm on the outskirts of Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, to explore possible exciting research and development opportunities.

Vertegrow’s ten metre tower, where a variety of herbs and edible flowers are already grown for the wholesale market and local restaurants, sits inconspicuously on the Waterside Farm site. The tower has been kitted out by Intelligent Growth Solutions of Edinburgh, who also supply the base line software that controls the lighting parameters, temperature, humidity and nutrition for each crop to grow.

The aim now is to explore new opportunities for the facility, as Vertegrow’s Director Graeme Warren explains: “As vertical farming moves beyond the staple micro herb and small leafy green production, we welcome the opportunity to explore new plants and products. It was great to welcome Grampian Growers, an innovative and forward-thinking co-operative, and the C2Network, to our facility to explore opportunities for collaboration.”

Helen Glass explained the C2Network’s interest: “Whilst vertical farming is well established for the commercial production of a variety of crops, the excitement is now around its potential to produce for a number of different markets, including high health status materials such as bioactives, as well as seed potatoes, soft fruit propagation and even forestry. Vertical farm operations can also be integrated with decarbonised energy sources on farm and there is potential to incorporate direct CO2 capture from air systems to provide a truly sustainable production system.“

Equally enthused by the visit, Claire Dyce of Grampian Growers commented: “It was great to visit Vertegrow’s facilities and we are lucky to have this fantastic set up on our doorstep. There are great opportunities for vertical farming, and we look forward to trialling some plant material with

Vertegrow in the coming months.”

Helen concluded: “The opportunity for our co-ops to access this commercial facility, together with their technical expertise to underpin and develop protocols for the rapid multiplication of high quality plant material, is a journey that the C2Network will be supporting.”

Find out more about Vertegrow at https://www.vertegrow.com

RSABI and Former Royal Marines Join Forces for Mental Health Training

A pioneering mental health initiative for Scottish agriculture is being delivered by former Royal Marines through a new partnership with RSABI. The groundbreaking Mental Health First Aid training is aimed at encouraging people to talk more freely about mental health, reducing stigma and improving understanding of what to look out for, and how to respond when someone may be struggling.The training is being delivered by IED Training Solutions Ltd, an award-winning consultancy founded by former Royal Marines. The initiative offers the opportunity for participants to gain certification in the SCQF Level 4 Award for First Aid for Mental Health Awareness and/or SCQF Level 5 Award in First Aid for Mental Health. The training is aimed at organisations and individuals who work regularly in the front line with farmers or crofters, including those involved in assessments or inspections, consultants and advisers.

The aim is to provide individuals with the knowledge to recognise a range of mental health conditions and know how to provide practical support. The training will help participants to develop the skills to start a conversation and to be able to direct people to appropriate professional help. The skills learned will also help those taking part to understand their own mental health better.

Training courses are now being delivered following a pilot phase which included assessors from Food Integrity Assurance, whose work involves meeting farmers while undertaking assessments for QMS and SQC.

Carol McLaren RSABI’s CEO, said: ”There are many synergies between the Royal Marines and farmingfrom working in all weathers and challenging terrain, to antisocial hours, time away from family, and public scrutiny. This initiative comes at a time when there are some really encouraging green shoots of change as farmers and others working in agriculture become more open about talking about mental health and the steps needed to maintain and improve it.”

IED Training Solutions was set up in 2015 by former Royal Marine Ian Clark.He and his team have extensive experience of delivering successful tailored Health and Wellbeing workshops to the rural sector.“Some great work has been done in the Royal Marines to encourage a really positive approach to achieving good mental health and we are very much looking forward to sharing that experience with the farming community. I think this training, and the cascade effect of the benefit, could be a major step forward for the industry.”

Visit www.rsabi.org.uk to find out more and/or email mentalhealthtraining@rsabi.org.uk to note interest.

MyHerdStats - Helping Improve Sustainability in Beef Production

MyHerdStats has been developed by ScotEID, on behalf of industry and supported by Scottish Government, to use statutory cattle registration and movement data to provide cattle keepers with consistent, accurate insight into their herd performance. The online tool securely presents herd management information to all Scottish suckler beef herds within the ScotEID login. All data that relates to each Scottish cattle herd was moved from BCMS into ScotEID in October 2021. With this information now available, MyHerdStats automatically generates insights and trends into each herd’s performance through a series of charts and tables. Cattle keepers now have easy access to a range of herd data insights into both performance and any year-on-year herd variability, to highlight areas of opportunity for further improvement.

Sustainable Beef Production

Governments throughout the world are setting commitments to drive reductions in emissions, including those from agricultural production. Livestock farmers in other countries are working to showcase their environmental credentials to prospective buyers. In Scotland, the vision is for the agricultural sector to become ‘amongst the lowest carbon and most efficient food producers in the world’ –delivering a competitive sector, adding value within Scotland’s vibrant food and drink sector, and enhancing the rural economy, environment, and biodiversity. It is a complex challenge and ambitious goal. We must seize opportunities, and take actions on farm to mitigate long-term consequences of climate change that can deliver near-term benefits to herd efficiency, farm performance, and help underpin our sustainability and brand image.

The Challenge

There is growing recognition of the seriousness of the global climate challenge and the need to reduce our reliance on finite resources and vulnerable natural ecosystems. Scotland is leading the way, having legislated some of the most ambitious carbon reduction targets in the world. Livestock farming accounts for around 5% of total greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland. Although these emissions are far below transport, industry, and power (68% combined), Scottish agriculture still has an opportunity and crucial contribution to make. A major stimulus for Scotland is a legally binding target within the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019 to become emissions net zero by 2045. Agriculture has an explicit role, and Scottish Government’s most recent Climate Change Plan update (CCPu), Dec 2020, identifies that sector emissions will need to reduce around four times faster over the next ten years than they have done to date.

To retain our reputation for high quality food, we must challenge our management and monitor our practices to deliver a product that is competitive in the market and can remain relevant into the future.It is not always easy to identify and prioritise the right actions to deliver across multiple objectives, but MyHerdStats is one tool that offers additional herd insight to provide greater confidence in management decisions.

In Scotland, current calculations state that in each year only 82 calves are reared to slaughter or as replacements per 100 cows in the herd. In other words, 18 out of 100 breeding cows within the national herd achieve nothing every year – except eat and produce methane! Regardless of the production system, common features make sense:

• Improved fertility,

• Improved growth rates,

• Reducing the number of unproductive stock and

• Lowering morbidity/mortalities through better health and welfare.

MyHerdStats offers insight to these performance indicators whilst helping to quantify positive change over time. Informed and data-led management decisions will improve technical performance and could play a role in continued support payments. Each beef breeding herd’s long biological cycle means change takes time to embed, but the easier your data is made available to help inform management decisions, the sooner benefits can be realised.

Find out more at: www.scoteid.dozuki.com/c/MyHerdStats

Scottish Seed Potato Exporters Return to the World Stage

In February, several Scottish seed potato exporters joined the Scottish Agri Export Hub in Berlin, to showcase their quality produce on a global platform.

Fruit Logistica, the world’s largest trade show for fresh fruits and vegetables, brings together 3,300 exhibitors and 72,000 visitors from 135 countries, and returned this year to its traditional February slot for the first time since 2020. The show provided the opportunity for seed potato buyers and importers to connect with exporters from Scotland.

Scotland has a long-established reputation for growing highly-prized seed potatoes which are sought by buyers from around the world. A delegation of seed potato exporters attended the event in Messe, Berlin, to meet with existing customers and explore potential opportunities in new markets. The Scottish Agri Export Hub secured stand space at the premium event providing seed potato exporters with an essential platform to promote their products, conduct business and network with key influencers.

Patrick Hughes, Manager of the Scottish Agri Export Hub told us: “Our seed potatoes are recognised for being of high health and high quality, and there is significant demand for them on the global market. Despite the prohibition on the import of Scottish seed potatoes into the EU, there are undoubtedly huge opportunities in alternative international markets, and we are keen to support our growers in any way we can.

“Events such as Fruit Logistica offer a fantastic platform to create and develop new business contacts and open up new markets for Scottish agricultural produce for the benefit of primary producers.”

Patrick noted: “In addition to the numerous meetings on stand held by Scottish exporters, many visitors came onto the stand curious to know more about fresh agri products that could be exported from Scotland. It was surprising how many were unaware of the range of fresh produce grown in Scotland; there is definitely potential in creating informative material in advance of future international trade shows.

Reflecting on the successful event, he added: “It was invaluable to re-connect with an international audience and, irrespective of the challenges facing the sector, there are endless opportunities for export. We now need to build on our presence at Fruit Logistica and work towards a more consistent and informative offering in future years to communicate the key attributes of our Scottish agri exports and continue to enhance our international reputation.”

Funded through the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership and supported by Scottish Government, the Scottish Agri Export Hub was launched by SAOS in partnership with NFU Scotland in late 2021 to establish a specialist export resource focusing on providing benefits to primary producers in the potato, cereal, fruit and vegetable sectors.

Amanda Brown Reflects on The Knowledge Bank’s Development and Potential

Seventeen years ago, when we were designing and discussing what was to become Scotland Food & Drink (SF&D), market insights was identified as one of the areas vital to helping the industry develop. As such, when it was launched a year later, an integral part of SF&D was a small team employed to provide insights and insights support to the Scottish food and drink sector.

Fast forward to October 2019, SAOS was approached by SF&D to ask whether I would be willing to scope up a ‘collaborative insights’ project. Reiterating the importance identified many years before, there was renewed ambition to create a service with access to market and consumer insights, but with more impact, scale and the momentum to build on and complement work already underway by members of the partnership and the Insights team at SF&D. The ‘collaborative insights’ project became The Knowledge Bank and we hosted our first webinar in February 2021.

It has been a privilege to have been instrumental in both the design and creation of the service, to have driven its launch, and to have operated as Project Director. We’ve worked (and continue to do so) with some of the leading research businesses in the UK, commissioning specific insights to benefit Scottish companies. These have explored health and wellness trends, eating out postpandemic, provenance, grocery and category insights, as well as consumer behaviour and ‘deep dives’ on specific opportunities such as sustainability and e-commerce. We’ve also focused on future trends and, of course, the cost of living crisis.

It’s the first time Scotland has had a service like this, with the scale and capacity needed to lead the way for the sector. We believe that businesses operating at any point in food or drink supply chains should be market driven, but we’re aware that many don’t have the resources or expertise to undertake their own research.

From the vision created in 2007, to all the hard work since The Knowledge Bank’s launch, we’ve ensured food and drink businesses across Scotland can now access valuable insights for free. It’s all been made possible with funding from the Food and Drink Recovery Plan funded by The Scottish Government. Over 400 businesses, stakeholders and partners have already got involved, and what has been created is really just starting to have an impact.

If you’ve not yet found out what The Knowledge Bank can do for you, go to: https://theknowledgebank.scot/