Quality Meat Scotland: Strathspey Monitor Farm Final Open Meet

Book event

The Smiths welcome you to join them for their final Monitor Farm Meet, looking at their future in farming, beginning with butchery demo.

Wendy Donald, Millers of Speyside, will open the Final Meet of the Strathspey Monitor Farm with a butchery demonstration.

Then the Smith family take centre stage as their business choices and future plans are laid out.

Be challenged on your own farming future as the family reflects on four years as Monitor Farmers.

  • Hear how the Smiths have made change happen in their suckler cow business.
  • Examine how long-term plans can benefit a beef calf enterprise.
  • Reflect on how you can bring family into a farming business.
  • Discuss why a business plan can be important for profit and progress.

The Smiths have seen significant changes in their farming business at Auchernack, Grantown-on-Spey since becoming the Strathspey Monitor Farmers in 2022.

Malcolm Smith has stepped away from the day-to-day business in his new role as Agricultural Adviser to the Cairngorms National Park. This has created opportunities for sons Calum and Hamish to plan the future direction of the farm.

Calum, with nutritionist Karen Stewart, KS Ruminant Nutrition Support Services, will tell the ‘Weaned Calf Story’: how breed choice and feed advice has changed the outcomes for their store cattle enterprise.

Hamish , with Kirsten Williams, Williams Rural Services, will recount his 4 year story, Restructuring:

  • Where Hamish was in 2022
  • How he has found a role on the farm
  • The challenges over the last 4 years
  • How Hamish has adapted/learned/grown
  • What he needs for a future at Auchernack (or beyond)

Kirsten wrote a plan (an ILMP) for the business in 2023 and revisits the farm in 2026. Summarising the findings at the Open Meet, she will highlight:

  • 3 key changes that have been implemented over the four years
  • The present – the strengths, weaknesses, opportunties and threats to the current business
  • The future -where the Smiths could be in 5 years. e.g.
  • Productivity
  • Profitability
  • Environmental or social
  • Goals: what do the Smiths need to get there?

The meeting concludes with Rich Young, the Management Group Chair, leading a panel with the Smith family and farmers in a Q&A session with the audience.