Respected Scottish farmer, James Brown, is no dairy farm casualty.
Poor market conditions in the sector prompted the well-known, pedigree dairy farmer to
transform his family’s traditional core business into a large-scale, commercially successful beef
enterprise.
Yet despite creating the shift just a relatively short time ago, Jim (as he prefers to be called) has
become one of the highest profile beef farmers in Scotland and is in regular demand all over the
UK as a speaker and consultant.
Jim concedes he has done well and puts the farm’s success down to his ability to choose quality
cattle which are then produced on a good grass silage-based system.
However he does add “My entrepreneurial skills in marketing the beef, probably has a lot to do
with it as well”
A farmer at heart, he is the fourth generation on his grandmother’s line to have worked at
Gaindykehead Farm, just outside Airdrie in central Scotland, and arrived at Gaindykehead as a
young boy in 1963 from his father’s farm next door. Jim was in fact the sixth generation to have
been born there.
Fifty years ago, the 129-hectare (320-acre) holding looked very different from the farm it is
today. There were few useful livestock buildings, no electricity - only paraffin lamps - no water
and, as was the case in those days, the toilet was outside.
When he began at the farm, there were only 22 head of Ayrshire cattle, compared with today’s
number of just over 600 commercial crossbreds, so additional buildings were gradually added to
house the ever-growing number of cattle.
Under his direction, there has also been a continuing programme of work carried out to improve
the quality of the land.
Originally, the farm had been covered in waist-high threshes and the family took advantage of
the grants that were available at that time to drain and re-seed the land, using a SAI HF11 mix.
Back then, the grass was used to feed the dairy cattle, but nowadays it is used for silage, the
quality for, which earned Jim many awards in the 80s and 90s with the Grassland Society.
Jim strongly believes the secret of good silage is a correct blend of seed mix. Just as important is
spreading the slurry and fertiliser at the correct time as is getting the timing right for cutting never in the morning, always in the afternoon when the sugars are higher in the grass.
Similar to many other farmers, Jim wilts silage for 24 hours and rows for another 24 before it is
brought in to be clamped as quickly as possible. For that reason there are always two tractors
working to roll it in.
Up until three years ago, silage-making was carried out by Jim, his staff and farm workers from
neighbouring farms. But, finding it increasingly difficult to employ staff to maintain production,
he decided to employ contractors to manage silage production.
“Changing to contractors went very smoothly, it has made no difference to the quality of silage
except it is costing us slightly more,” he says.
Jim now has just one part-time member of staff who comes in five afternoons a week to lend a
hand, as well as his son, John, who works full-time on the farm.
Overhauling tradition
Traditionally, Gaindykehead was famous for its Holsteins and Jim produced approximately 20
top show cows during the time Holsteins were on the farm.
Such was his success, which Jim puts down to good old-fashioned Scottish stockmanship, he
retains the distinction of having the same three cows take the top spot at both the Royal Highland
and the Royal Show in 1990.
Seventeen pedigree Holsteins were first imported onto the farm in 1971 from Ontario in Canada,
paid for with money from a home-bred Simmental calf that had been sold to America for £5,000.
Each cow produced between nine to 10,000 litres of milk, which was then sold to Wiseman
Dairies.
In 2004, Jim made the radical decision to re-evaluate the business and switch completely to beef.
“I needed a change of lifestyle,” he says. “Finding staff to milk the cows was becoming
increasingly hard and getting time off was extremely difficult.”
The changing climate was also a factor in his decision.
“Although the amount of rainfall hadn’t really changed over the years, summers were becoming
noticeable wetter and it was becoming more and more difficult to leave the cows out.
“Two years later from that initial decision, the milk tanker made it final journey to the farm.”
Before total switch-over, the beef enterprise began in 1971, as Jim began importing pedigree
Simmentals. In 1985 he sold the herd of Simmentals to concentrate on commercial cattle.
“Taking this business decision allowed my business to grow with an increased turnover,
something that hadn’t been possible with the pedigree cattle.”
In the same year, he began renting a second farm nearby, which was also used for cattle and
silage up until earlier this year, when it was decided to move everything over to Gaindykehead to
make life easier.
Commercial development
For the next five years, Jim bought commercial suckler calves and sold them as strong stores
before changing to a finishing system.
With this in mind, he began purchasing stronger commercial store cattle, buying usually at
around 480 to 500 kilos, keeping them for approximately 117 days and letting them go at around
650 to 700 kilos.
The majority of the breeding is Limousin, Charolais, Simmental and Angus, with purchasing
taking place
at local marts such as Lanark, Caledonian in Stirling, Forfar and Aire.
The cattle are fed on potatoes and silage once a day on a ratio of 40 kilos of potatoes to seven
kilos of silage, which is fed using a diet feeder. A tyre in front of a Manitou is used to push the
potatoes back in the passages every evening and all the 'reject' potatoes come from a nearby
potato packing plant that are bought from between £8 to £20 a tonne.
Jim now uses 9,000 tonnes of potatoes a year and the cattle outside are fed similar to inside ones,
using potatoes and grass. The outside ones however are fed using Portaquip feed bunkers.
“I haven’t had to buy a bag of potatoes in a very long time” Sue laughingly added.
Four years ago, it became clear that a large amount of capital investment was needed to change
core elements of the management system.
One of Jim's plans was to increase the slurry storage from five weeks storage to seven months at
a cost of around £90,000. This reduced fertiliser usage from 120 tonne a year to 20 tonne, and his
initial plan to recoup the money over an eight-year period is on target to be regained after three
years.
So far, he is exceptionally pleased with the results. “It was easy to implement and financially it
has turned out better than expected with only three years to recoup the money rather than the
expected eight”
Around 3,000 gallons of slurry is spread by umbilical and tanker along with 40 units of fertiliser
yielding just over eight and half tonnes of silage per acre.
Similar to many beef farmers, Jim has regular clients that require meat from local farms. Scotch
beef who supply Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury is one of his largest clients, but he also sells
to four local butchers, three shops in London (through the Macduff producer group), one in
Brussels as well as Highland Meats and Morrisons.
Jim reckons “The Scottish meat brand is the best there is and is very much in demand, especially
in London”
Jim realises 297p/kilo for an average of 360 kilos. But over the next three months, he is looking
towards improving the margins by improving the weights of the cattle by 20kgs when they go
out, as well as improving the U grades currently running at 25 per cent, to around 35.
Talking politics
Outside of the farm gate, Jim has spent more than 20 years being involved in agri-politics as well
as being vice chairman of the Scottish Milk Marketing Board for eight years.
It comes as no surprise to realise the farm has played host to many visitors from all over the
world, and up until the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2000, the farm averaged around 600 visitors
a year.
In the 1960’s Jim was very much involved with the Scottish Agricultural College and worked
closely with the late Dr John Frame who was a grassland pioneer in producing more profitable
grass. Originally, people would visit the farm to witness the pioneering methods and
management that Jim used.
Then attention turned to his dairying.
Visitors were keen to see the Holsteins and today of course, it is the beef system that welcomes
farmers, students and agricultural groups and, in particular, an increase in Irish visitors, eager to
gain an insight into one of Scotland’s most successful farms.
Although at times, when mistakes have been made, it would have been preferable to have kept
these quiet, Jim believes it is vital to adopt an open farm policy to allow for the exchange of
ideas and as he says “you should never stop learning”.
Future plans for the farm does not necessarily involve cattle. John his son is already looking at
the viability of a wind croft on the farm, a diversification many farmers nowadays are moving
into.
Whichever way the Brown family decide to go next, one suspects it will be a success.