THE FARM 

Our farm is located in South Lanarkshire at the foot of the Pentland Hills in the Southern Uplands of Scotland.  We are around 7 miles from Biggar, 25 miles south of Edinburgh and 30 miles from Glasgow.  The farm is around 1000 ft above sea level.

 

The Farm & our Lacaune sheep

 

Our farm is just under 300 acres of mixed grazing and arable land.  We try to grow as much as we can ourselves by making around 60 acres of barley and 100 acres of silage and hay. Due to the altitude and climate our growing season is fairly short compared with some other areas of the UK so we are limited in what we can grow.  We therefore concentrate on growing high quality silage and hay to provide the basis of the ewes' diet.  We adopt a low input system as far as possible which we feel is the most efficient and environmentally sustainable way to run our farm.

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In 2012 we installed two 20KW wind turbines to take advantage of the fact that the farm lies in the windiest corner of the windiest country in Europe - and to minimise our carbon footprint!

 

We have 300 Dairy Lacaune ewes and 100 Dairy Goats (mixture of Saanen, Toggenburg and Alpine). We have found however that due to the climate and altitude, the Lacaune sheep suit our farm and system better. We keep them in during the winter then put them out in the summer once the silage has been cut.

 

We also run around 200 commercial Scotch and English mules which live out all year round and which we cross with a Texel tup.