Crofts and Small Farms
Calving Intervals and Small Herds
Calving Intervals are one of many Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that can be used in any suckler herd to assess how a herd is performing. Although some consideration is needed when applying these to small herds Performance Targets for Small Herds | Information helping farmers in Scotland | Farm Advisory Service. Calving Intervals now have…
Crofting Matters – Changes to Improve Welfare of Lambs
A game changer for sheep on hill grazings? It’s very tricky to castrate and tail lambs within 7 days unless lambs are born inbye. Could two new techniques, that allow castration and tailing up to 3 months of age, not only reduce pain levels in lambs, but allow better and easier management on commons and…
Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme (CAGS)
Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme (CAGS) If you’re a tenant, owner-occupier crofter, or sub-tenant crofter, you can make use of the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme (CAGS) to access grants. These grants can help you with the cost of a number of different operations you might be doing on the croft. It can help you: Reduce production…
Milk Fever in Suckler cows on Machair Land
Hypocalcaemia, also known as milk fever, is typically not an issue in suckler cows, although experience shows that the conditions on the Uists are just right to be an exception to this rule. Grass and whole crop silages grown on the shell sand rich machair soils result in very unusual mineral contents in locally grown…
Win-Win – Crofters’ Assistance for Energy Efficient Heating
The Croft House Grant (CHG) can help alleviate fuel poverty for some crofters providing them with warmer homes that are cheaper to heat. This grant has recently been updated to include Energy Efficiency options at a higher grant rate to help tackle the Climate Crisis. These improvements will mean lower fuel bills and a more…
The Farm Management Handbook
The Farm Management Handbook Your guide to Scottish agriculture The Farm Management Handbook is an essential tool for any progressive farm business, providing a comprehensive and up-to-date source of information for farmers, crofters, rural professionals, students and consultants. Subject matter covered includes: Crop Inputs Arable Potatoes Grassland Forage Crops Livestock Dairying Beef Cattle Sheep Red…
Crofting Matters – Livestock Disease Risks on Crofts
Disease risk in livestock, and biosecurity is something we perhaps don’t consider as much in crofting areas as farmers might in more intensive systems. Crofting tends to be more extensive, with lower densities of stock, but we often share bulls, and graze on common ground. In this episode I’m joined by Kythe MacKenzie, who is a vet with SRUC, and Kate Lamont, who is a researcher, to discuss the practicalities of managing disease risk.
Preparing Crofts and Small Farms for 2025 and Beyond
Future agricultural support is changing, and while the schemes crofts and small farms are eligible for will not change in 2025, there are additional things you will have to do to access support for next year. Like all other businesses in the sector, crofts and small farms will need to have completed at least two…
Crofting Matters – Routes to Crofting
This episode hears from 2 crofters with two different routes into crofting. In this episode we discuss how they gained their croft, what they found were barriers, and hints and tips for aspiring or new crofters. I’m delighted to be joined by Derek Dick, who is a relatively new crofter in Berneray, and Angus Ferguson, who is an experienced crofter in North Uist.
Ireland Trip Summary
As a current agriculture student in Scotland I was very much looking forward to furthering my knowledge of the subject on the trip to Ireland and seeing the similarities & differences between the Scottish and Irish systems. The trip particularly allowed me to expand my knowledge of biodiversity enhancement as we learned greatly about the…