SCOTLAND’S biennial Beef Event is to be held on a farm in the Borders next year, hosted by the Stewart family at Fans, Earlston, Berwickshire.
The event, organised by the Scottish Beef Association, will focus on the efficient production of beef on a mixed farm and will take place on Thursday, June 8.
A local organising committee, under the chairmanship of Bowhill Estate farm manager Sion Williams, with representatives from the farming, trade and research/advisory sectors, has been established to run the event.
“Fans will be an excellent venue for Scotland’s national beef event,” said Mr Williams. “It is a fantastic set-up to see in operation and a shining example of a commercially run beef cattle enterprise from start to finish. It will provide an opportunity to see how an efficient suckler cow enterprise adds value to an arable/potato enterprise as part of a mixed farming unit.”
Mr Williams said he looked forward to seeing what advances were available to make the industry more sustainable, especially with the economic pressures currently on the industry due to changes under the Common Agricultural Policy and Brexit.
“We are grateful to the Stewart family for accepting the association’s invitation to host this important event for the beef industry in Scotland which is sure to attract a huge attendance of beef farmers and industry professionals from throughout Scotland and the north of England,” he said.
The farm is run by Douglas Stewart and his wife, Kelda, father, Graham, and children, Holly and Archie. Stocking comprises a commercial suckler herd of 400 Aberdeen-Angus cross cows, which are put to the Aberdeen-Angus bull, with all progeny finished on the farm.
“The beef enterprise is integral to our mixed farming enterprise and is profitable in its own right as well as utilising grass, home-grown barley and straw and providing farmyard manure for our arable operation,” said Mr Stewart.
“It is an honour to be asked to host this event and we look forward to working with the SBA and the organising committee to provide an interesting and worthwhile day for visitors.”
Fans is a tenanted farm on the Mellerstain Estate and base for an extensive farming enterprise which takes in the farms of Caldside and Gordon East Mains. The suckler cows are all home-bred and the herd has been built up over the last 25 years from the original suckler herd of beef x dairy cows. There are 14 Aberdeen-Angus bulls and one Charolais bull on the farm and the herd has been closed for many years, with only stock bulls purchased.
“We now have a more consistent type of cow as we have more control and fertility and general health has been improved significantly,” said Mr Stewart.
Cows are calved in April and May and wintered inside on straw, silage and barley. All calves are wintered on silage and barley and males left entire. Bulls are finished on an intensive cereal diet at around 15-16 months of age.
Cropping comprises 101 acres winter oats, 403 acres winter wheat, 244 acres winter barley and 135 acres spring barley and the other main enterprise is 350 acres of seed potatoes, mostly grown on rented land. Potatoes are grown on contract for the co-operative, Saltire Seed Ltd, of which the Stewart’s are members, and stored, graded and dispatched from Fans to customers in England, Europe and further afield.
For in-depth news and views on Scottish agriculture, see this Friday’s issue of The Scottish Farmer or visit www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here