Streamlining livestock handing facilities, including using digital weight scales and electronic cattle identification, along with silage analysis, are set to help new South Ayrshire Monitor Farmers John and David Andrew to gather farm performance figures.

The information, coupled with support from fellow farmers and advisers in the Monitor Farm programme to help analyse and use the data, should lead to increasing returns from their enterprise.

Those conclusions came from the launch meeting of the South Ayrshire Monitor Farm on November 30, at Rowanston Farm near Maybole. Hosted by father and son John and David Andrew, the meeting was opened by Quality Meat Scotland Chair, Kate Rowell, who has previously been a Monitor Farmer. Scores of local farmers and suppliers attended, keen to learn more about the Andrew’s family farm and how to get involved themselves.

The new, four-year Monitor Farm programme is farmer-led and farmer-driven, with support from specialists 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 farms reach full economic, social, and environmental sustainability by optimising production.

The enterprise at Rowanston runs to more than 1770 acres with 150 suckler cows, 1000 breeding ewes and 100 acres of crops, with all progeny finished along with 200 purchased store cattle. Attendees viewed the farm’s finishing cattle and feed inputs, and are due to look in more detail at the sheep flock, sucklers and hill farm system at future meetings.

For the finishing enterprise, liveweight gain of the purchased stores ranged from 1.1kg to 1.9kg per day, averaging at 1.4kg. Farmers noted the cattle were in good condition and liked the use of slat mats for comfort and welfare.

The farm has a cattle handling system, but there were suggestions that it could be streamlined for ease of use, while the weigh bars in the farm’s crush are awaiting repair after being damaged. It was identified that integrating the crush and weighing technology with an improved handling system and Cattle Electronic Identification (EID), would help John and David better performance record and asses where efficiencies could be made.

The family was commended for making good use of home-grown feeds and the novel inclusion of breadcrumbs as well as Supagrains in the cattle diet. Given the rising cost of feed and variance in daily liveweight gains, it was recommended that silage should be analysed for energy and protein content for improved target nutrition.

“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.”

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, including focussing on the hill farm system, sucklers and sheep enterprise. This meeting will also 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