An Introduction to Midgarth

Midgarth is a suckler cow unit owned and operated by Adrian Miller and his wife Marion. It is located on the island of Stronsay which is a 1 ½ hour long ferry crossing from Orkney’s main town of Kirkwall.

The farm extends to almost 300 acres and carries a spring calving suckler cow herd of around 100 head.  Off-spring are sold mainly as forward stores from November to January and are sired by a mixture of Simmental or Aberdeen Angus bulls. The business has taken on additional land in recent years and seeks to increase productivity by enhancing soil fertility and structure where appropriate with studious use of inputs including FYM and slurry.

The soil at Midgarth is all derived from a parent material of Old Red Sandstone however there are 2 main soil types within this. The best land is of the Thurso association (Bilbster Series) composed of brown forest soils with brown rankers. The poorer land is Canisbay association (Tresdale Series), the dominant soil type of which is non calcareous gleys. The entire farm is classified with land capability class 4.2 which is land primarily suited to grassland with some limited potential for other crops such as barley and oats.