Less than six months from their initial launch meeting, becoming a Monitor Farm has highlighted good practice and some areas for change and improvement for the Smith family of Auchernack in Strathspey.

They held an open summer meeting recently where visitors heard about the progress they had made and discussed key farming issues with technical specialists as part of a farm tour.

Malcolm and Sammi and their son Calum farm 140 suckler cows and 120 store cattle at Auchernack, a 325ha (800acre) farm near Grantown on Spey. The focus is on store calf production using mostly Limousin sires. Cattle are wintered indoors for ease of management with calving split, with a third of the herd calving in autumn/winter and the remainder in the spring.

Previously, an Integrated Land Management Plan carried out by SAC had highlighted the farm’s good reputation for producing high-quality store calves, low borrowings, below average labour costs and excellent use of slurries and manure to reduce inorganic fertiliser application.

Recommendations to improve resilience and profitability include grazing more of the substantial hill ground, with the dual benefits of enhancing biodiversity and improved carbon capture.

Previously, the hill ground had been visited by the Monitor Farm’s management group. Nikki Yoxall, head of research for the Pasture for Life, said improving diversity would benefit pollinators and soil health, bolstering the environmental and financial sustainability.

Specialists from Soil Essentials have sampled all productive grass and arable field soils with fields that are sub-optimal for pH having been spread with lime.

Alistair Gordon from Robertsons Crop Services highlighted the efficient use of slurries and manures on the farm pointing out that such applications boost potash and phosphate levels, improving plant root structure and density.

Soil organic carbon is high across the farm, highlighting the importance of organic recycling on the fields and good soil management. This was demonstrated by a carbon audit carried out in spring which showed Auchernack captures more carbon than it produces.

The data theme continued with a presentation from Jane Thomson from Shearwell Data, who spoke about the potential to use EID to ‘work smarter rather than harder.’ She said that it would help track individual animal performance, identifying those which work best for the farm and situation, and also enable stock to be sold at the optimum weight.

With so much data being produced and potential change being suggested, Malcolm said the family was ‘just getting into the Monitor Farm process’.

“We’ve made small adjustments on the basis of our Monitor Farm management group discussions to timing of sales of our calves. We’re just getting into the mindset of the need to change and adapt, through advice, data and information and reflection, without changing drastically the system that we have that has got us to where we are, successfully up to now.”

Malcolm is also involved with the Royal Highland Educational Trust (RHET), and visitors took part in a charity stockjudging competition, raising £340 for the organisation. The money will enable RHET to buy an early years learning resource box to engage primary schoolchildren about farming.

For more information about future meetings and to join the Strathspey Monitor Farm Community Group, visit www.monitorfarms.co.uk or contact Monitor Farm regional adviser Peter Beattie at pbeattie@qmscotland.co.uk, tel 07769 366614, or email monitorfarm@qmscotland.co.uk.