Nicola Wordie brings some positive fresh thinking to Cairnborrow, Huntly

George and Margo Wordie have been on the farm for 30 years and since 2019 have been joined by daughter Nicola working full-time on the farm alongside help at busy times from son James and daughter Sarah.

Since coming home to farm, Nicola has a brought a good balance of fresh ideas and continues to build on the success of years of breeding and rearing Charolais cross cattle sold as stores and commercial sheep.

All of this success is underpinned by hard work, attention to detail and a strong family team who know how to produce quality stock. Since coming home, Nicola has put her shoulder to the wheel as the farm continues to head in the right direction.

“I always knew I wanted to be a farmer growing up, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else” explains Nicola.

After school Nicola decided to head to Craibstone college in Aberdeen to gain an HND in Agriculture. This was followed by three months in New Zealand on bull finishing and dairy farms. Nicola said: “It was an amazing opportunity, one which I would encourage anyone to take if given the chance. Farming is very different out there but it was great to experience it.”

After New Zealand, Nicola returned to the family farm and got stuck in helping with every aspect of the mixed business. Over the years she has taken over more of the reins of the sheep enterprise and grown the flock from 650 to 850 ewes.

“My ambition is to grow more grass and continue to increase the flock so we eventually run 1000 breeding ewes,” explained Nicola.

One of the key moments of Nicola becoming a farmer was getting her own Australian kelpie sheepdog Roxy.

“The dog gave me independence as I could now work the sheep myself. I’d recommend any young farmer working at home who has sheep to get a dog as it was brilliant for me.”

This spring has been busy on the farm with 850 ewes and 110 calving cows giving birth. The first to be born are the pure-bred lambs from the Texel flock of 30 ewes which kicks off in February.

Nicola said: “We have had pure Texels on the farm for a long time going back to the early years when they were first imported. We use the flock to breed our own tups to go onto the Scotch Mules. This allows us to get rams which have not been pushed and we can get the genetics we need. I like to breed for a smaller more feminine head which saves a lot of problems at lambing. We also ensure our tups have a good length of body and are strong on their feet.”

The flock is not entirely closed and when new genetics are needed it is Nicola who has been calling the shots since 2019.

“I started buying tups at Huntly and Thainstone. Then in 2019 I went down to Kelso. I remember feeling the pressure when heading there for the first time. If I am in charge of buying in all the sheep, then it is on my head if they are not good enough. Now I’ll spend between £600 to £1000 for a tup but I remember the first one I bought was £1500. It was a big strong tup with the characteristics I like. Nervously I just kept bidding but I now have the experience to know when to keep my hand down.”

The farm also buys in about 200 replacements which historically were all gimmers but for the last couple of years there have been some ewe lambs purchased too.

“I thought we could make better use of our 400 acres of hill ground for over wintering ewe lambs, instead of buying all gimmers,” said Nicola. “So we have been buying a few ewe lambs at £120 and kept them a year before breeding rather than buying all older gimmers at £200. It doesn’t cost us £80 to keep a sheep for a year so if we can get a few ewe lambs it saves on costs.”

After the early pure Texels are born, Nicola then lambs 100 Scotch Mules in the shed from the end of February. This, she explained, eases the pressure by reducing the main flock to 700 which started lambing March, 23.

This means Nicola is working round the clock with the sheep and gets extra help from siblings James and Sarah, as well as Mum and Dad.

A typical day at lambing is for Nicola and George to head round the sheep at 4.30am with a torch just before light. “This gives us a chance to see what has happened through the night."

All new-borns are given iodine on their navels and numbered. In 2019 they started putting iodine on all the navels which has dramatically dropped infections. The numbers of ewes and lambs are then recorded on Nicola’s phone so she can keep a running total in each field.

The farm runs a drift lambing system whereby once there are enough ewes and lambs in the field, the pregnant sheep are moved to a new pasture leaving behind the new-borns and their mothers.

“This keeps the system simple,” Nicola explained. “Of course the weather will always keep us on our toes. This year we started lambing in our biggest field of 35 acres and we moved the sheep on once we had lambed 50 to 70 ewes. After the first move, we continue as appropriate depending on the field size which can mean shifting every day at the peak.”

The Wordies lamb outside at the end of March, a little earlier than similar farms in Aberdeenshire, to ensure the sheep are off the silage fields early. The 1350-acre farm has a shorter growing season as their land starts at 550ft above sea level before rising to 1000ft.

This year Nicola was reminded on just how challenging lambing is in Aberdeenshire. After 10 days of lambing outside, four inches of snow fell on the farm. As a result, the busiest time of the year on the farm saw a big increase in workload.

Nicola said: “Before the snow we had only 30 pens in the shed for the ewes and lambs. After the snow started, we had 70 ewes and lamb inside. The extra pens were squeezed in everywhere – Dad went twice to buy new gates as we kept running out.

"Cattle had to be shifted round to get enough space which is not ideal in the middle of calving. We just couldn’t get decent days which allowed us to put the new-born lambs outside, but luckily the snow didn’t last forever and by April 9, things had calmed down. But it was a lot of work and a lot of stress. We had to do all that we could to keep everything alive, we even had lambs in the kitchen.”

The farm deployed a new policy this year by only letting ewes run with a maximum of two lambs. Until now, some triplets were left on if the ewe looks to have enough milk. But Nicola made the decision to buy an automatic milking machine to feed the pet lambs if they can’t be fostered onto a ewe with a single.

“We mothered on a lot of the triplet lambs to ewes with singles at the start of the lambing,” Nicola admitted. “But once the snow arrived it kyboshed that idea.”

This left the farm with 170 pet lambs and despite a hefty £3000 price tag, the Volac machine was worth it. The machine only makes 500ml of milk on demand so it is always fresh and the lambs can feed whenever they want which prevents them getting bloated.

At the peak, the Wordies were getting through three bags of milk powder a day. The lambs were batched by size and stage into four pens, all with access to teets for milk on demand. They all have adlib hay and lamb pellets from the start and are weaned off milk at five to six weeks.

Nicola thinks the new machine is worth the investment. “Last year’s 80 pet lambs were fed by the shepherdess bucket which took four hours every day so if we had used that system for 170, someone would have to spent a whole day feeding orphans.”

The new system seems to be keeping the lambs healthy and thriving which is all part of the farm’s high health approach which keeps disease to a minimum. Lambing diseases such as twin lamb disease only occurred a handful of times as only three propylene glycol drenches were used.

This low number for the size of the flock Nicola puts down to the ewes getting access to molasses with minerals which gives the energy required later in pregnancy.

There were around five prolapses which were treated with a harness without a spoon. Despite assurances that ewes can lamb past the harness, Nicola likes to keep an extra eye on the ewes in case of complications.

“Overall, we had a successful lambing,” Nicola admitted. “The snow certainly challenged us but we were down to five ewes left by April 16. Our tups are out for four and a half weeks but we usually get it finished up within three and a half weeks.”

Nicola’s passion for farming isn’t just to develop the family farm but also to support the industry and engage with the public. Through her Instagram account @livestock_farmher over 11,000 people follow the trials and tribulations of a mixed farm in Aberdeenshire.

“I hummed and hayed for over six months if I should start a farm account,” Nicola said. “But I finally took the plunge in January 2021 to see where it could go. I really didn’t think much of it and didn’t think it would take off.”

Since then, Nicola’s followers have snowballed into the thousands who enjoy regular pictures and videos. Not afraid to show farming highs and lows, Nicola documented throughout this year’s lambing in the snow giving followers a field side view of the physical and emotional challenges to sheep farming. Moreover, she uploads educational videos explaining procedures on the farm and dispelling some all-to-common myths about livestock rearing.

“The videos and pictures help me to explain what we are doing on the farm. It allows me to connect with other farmers and to keep learning about everything in agriculture.”

Follower numbers went through the roof when sister Sarah, nominated Nicola for BBC Food and Farming awards Countryfile’s Young Countryside Champion. Within days of appearing on the show, the number of followers jumped from 1600 to over 6000 and have since continued to grow.

“I always wanted to educate people as to where their food comes from and why we do, what we do on the farm. With increasing bad press for the livestock industry, I wanted to show what we are doing on farms has a benefit. Our industry is part of the climate change challenge and we are doing what we can to play our part in the challenges ahead.”

The response from the public has been overwhelmingly positive. “I have learned the public really appreciate how well we look after animals and how we try to give them the best life we can on the farm,” said Nicola. “Each day I get 20 to 30 interactions from the public and I could count the number of abusive messages on one hand.

“I sometimes worry I am boring people but people keep coming to the page and enjoying the updates so I’ll keep going for a while more.”

With a passion for farming both inside and outside the farm gate, we could be hearing a lot more from Nicola in the years to come.

On The Spot

What is your favourite time on the farm? – Springtime, I love bringing new life into the farm.

Proudest farming moment? – I have two moments, when I got through to the final three of the Countryfile award and appearing on the Landward TV show.

What do you do outside farming to relax? – Socialising with friends.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? – Busy on the farm and promoting the industry through social media or any other method.

Where do you learn the most about farming? – From Dad and Mum

Best farming purchase? – Roxy the sheepdog for £350

Favourite farming event to attend? – I love the on-farm events like Countryside Live or Scotsheep. But I do enjoy the socialising at the Highland Show too.

Most important piece of equipment on the farm? – Manitou loader and the quad bike

FARM facts

Farm size – 1010acres of Region 1 ground and 250acres Region 2

Cattle numbers and policy – 240 mainly Simmental cross, with black Limousins used on heifers and Charolais on cows. Steers are sold at 10-12 months with autumn born averaging 480kg when sold as stores and spring born at 450kg. Heifers are sold at 10-12 month with autumn born weighing 450kg and spring born 430kg.

Sheep numbers and policy – 850 Scotch Mules and 30 pedigree Texel ewes all put to Texel tups

Cropping – 90acres of spring barley and eight acres of turnips

VISIT the farm

Farmers are invited to a open day at Cairnborrow Farm to discuss cows and carbon. The SAC technical beef is on Thursday June 9, between 10.15am and 3.30pm. The meeting is focussed on creating a sustainable future for the beef industry which strikes a balance between tackling emissions and bolstering productivity.

Attendees have the opportunity to participate in four interactive stations; maximising grass; health planning; methane inhibitors for beef cattle and virtual fencing. There will also be a nutrition update from David McClelland from Norvite, discussing how the war in Ukraine could impact winter feeding. After lunch there will be a panel session hosted by head of SAC Consulting, Andrew Lacey, posing the question ‘How does the Scottish beef industry prepare for the future’? On the panel will be Colin Davidson of Skail Farm in Orkney and Kirsty Budge of Bigton Farm in Shetland. Head of Agriculture for Virgin Money, Brian Richardson, will also take part in the session, alongside SRUC’s Senior Economist Steven Thomson.