Farming awards celebrate north-east talent
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The winners of the British Farming Awards have been revealed at a digital award’s ceremony.
Hosted by Vernon Kay, and watched by thousands across the farming industry, the night was an amazing showcase of how this incredible industry can come together in one of the toughest years, to highlight the innovation and achievements of British farmers.
The awards also continued to shine a spotlight on the emerging new agri-technologies coming into the industry along with talented new entrants and a hugely diverse array of diversification enterprises.
Sophie Throup, Morrisons Head of Agriculture, Fisheries and Sustainable Sourcing, said: “This year more than ever as we have faced huge challenges feeding the nation during the Covid-19 pandemic, British farmers have one again come to the fore.
“Thank you to every farmer who continues to help keep food flowing, growing and rearing fantastic British products for our customers and their families.”
The Machinery Innovator category saw a national Silver award for Gordon Stephen of Wagglehill Croft, Cuminestown.
Gordon and his wife Amanda raise Highland cattle which they sell direct to customers, alongside the running of an agricultural contracting business.
No stranger to creating equipment to make farming life easier, such as calf catchers, the couple’s recent development sees them focus on the challenges of weatherproofing round bales.
The weatherproofer was borne out of need.
Due to a lack of building space, they wanted to store round bales of hay and straw outside during winter and stack them to further save on space, which meant wrapping techniques such as a tube liner was not suitable.
A simple solution was to cover the circumference of the bale with wrap and leave the ends open but, unable to find any machine on the market that could do this without being too expensive, he decided to build my own.
The first one worked with a few modifications to get the wrap held and cut but then he started weatherproofing for customers and, as demand increased, he overhauled the machine.
Bales are now wrapped sitting vertically rather than horizontally, allowing wrap to be applied better.
Weatherproofing bales has now become Gordon’s main job for the harvest season, undertaking more than 13,500 bales last year and with an increase each year.
The machine fits to the front linkage of a tractor and bales are individually wrapped so can be either stacked up or left in rows.
There was also a Silver award in the New Entrants category for Kirsty and Ross Williams of Upper Tullochbeg, Huntly.
With careers off-farm and a young family to keep them busy, Ross and Kirsty Williams have still found the time to transform Upper Tullochbeg farm since they took it on in 2013.
When they came to the Forestry Commission-owned farm, they only had 90 ewes, but in the seven years since they have significantly built the size and scale of the enterprise and manage 195 acres in varying forms.
The unit now consists of 90 pedigree sheep, which are a mixture of Beltex and Bluefaced Leicesters, 110 Suffolk cross commercial ewes, seven pedigree Shorthorn cows, 25 commercial Blue Grey cows, 400 turkeys reared for the Christmas market and a swathe of forage crops and grassland to underpin the unit.
With a strategic approach to their farm business and a willingness to try new ideas and innovations, the couple now want to take the leap into owning their own farm when the 10-year tenancy they are currently on comes to an end.
Mitigating climate change is a core area of focus and Ross and Kirsty have designed their system to utilise their assets including investment in soil fertility and a conscious decision to choose breeds to maximise production per hectare.
A vast reduction in antibiotic usage has also been implemented over the years, totally removing all blanket treatments to the ewes pre lambing and lambs post lambing. This has had a positive impact on the livestock, their management techniques and variable costs.
They believe now is the right time for them to take their farming journey to the next stage.
Top honours in the awards in the north-east went to Gold award winner - Agri-tech Innovator of the Year, Marc Skivington from Slainspark, Kinneff.
With farm safety climbing up the agenda, Marc Skivington came up with an innovative solution, which can ultimately save lives.
Smart Farmer is a cloud-based software and mobile app tool which uses a traffic light system to help farmers run checks on machinery before starting a job, and keep on maintenance and servicing.
Farmers can add usage hours, photos and descriptions of any issues, and set alerts for when a service is due. All information and service records are automatically uploaded to the cloud, helping to keep paperwork to a minimum.
Due to an ever-creasing concern about health and safety on farm and the need for prevention, Mark was trying to find a better solution for farm safety management, which did not burden users with paperwork.
Instead he wanted a reassurance that machinery was being checked, maintained and serviced regularly.
Having not found appropriate software which addressed this, Smart Farmer was born through a collaboration with Robert Gordon University.
Smart Farmer helps farmers abide by the law and also helps employers, managers and operators better communicate and take responsibility for machine safety.
The admin of the system can amend and edit checks specific to the machine in question, and warning of a pending defect.
Mark, who manages a diverse 1800-hectare business at Slainspark Farm, knows only too well the importance of good machinery maintenance on his mixed farm.
He grows combinable crops, seed potatoes, turnips, and daffodils; milks 600 dairy cows across two sites; fattens 33,000 pigs a year, and has a 300-head beef herd.
The farm also has a 400Kw anaerobic digester; a 500Kw wind turbine; and a 400Kw biomass plant.
On winning, Marc said: “I have never won anything in my life so I genuinely feel quite speechless about winning this award.
"Agri-tech can sometimes be too complicated in its use and ability to actually do the job you need it to do.
"I wanted to use my own knowledge and understanding to create a practical, simple database which can be easily accessed by other farmers who, at the end of the day, don’t have astronomical pots of money to throw at safety systems for their machinery.
"It is about trying our best to reduce fatalities we know are rife in our industry and this software system benefits farm safety and offers a solution.”
What the judges said: “Mark is tackling the hugely prevalent issue of safety on farm through his agri-technology, with the potential to make a huge impact and ultimately save lives.
"The judges were impressed to see such a passionate individual address a focal area, which sees many farmers still refuse to address until tragic accidents happen.
