Producing highly palatable, nutritious forages is never an easy task in Scotland's fickle climate, but hit a dry, sunny weather window at harvest - albeit more of a lucky break some years - and livestock and back pockets undoubtedly reap the rewards.

For brothers, Charlie and Jonny McCririck - winners of the 2015 East of Scotland Grassland's silage competition - their superior crop provided a valuable 2kg of protein to the finishing ration, or, 0.5kg of soya per head per day, coupled with some very contented, bright eyed and bushy tailed cattle.

Securing a first supreme forage title for this family business, which also includes parents, Bryce and Pat McCririck, was a sample that first won the best beef and bale silage section and produced a D-value of 77, an ME of 12.3MJ per kg of dry matter, and a dry matter percentage of 41.4%.

Impressively, protein totalled 13.9% - the best ever produced on the 625-acre mixed grassland and arable unit at Whitmuirhaugh, Kelso, which runs alongside 700 arable acres that are share/contract farmed at Kersequarter.

Cut on June 4, this forage made up part of a 50-acre four-year ley that was allowed to wilt for more than a day and harvested on June 6.

"The crop didn't get any rain when it was cut, but it didn't get glorious sunshine either although there was a constant warm wind during the three days," said Jonny, who admitted that producing top quality silage is very much down to mother nature.

In contrast to the majority of silage growers, the McCriricks rely more on hen pen and urea instead of traditional compound fertilisers. Although there are no sheep on the farm, winterers are brought in to add manure and ease cash flow, but are always off by the end of April. At this time, silage fields are shut off and dressed with 2t/acre of hen pen and 1.5cwt of urea.

Cut six weeks later with a mower conditioner - owned in partnership with two neighbours - grass was left to wilt for more than 36hours.

This green feed was then baled into 4.5ft bales and triple wrapped at the silage face in the steading. Rat poison is also used heavily throughout the bale stack to reduce spoilage.

"If you lose quality after harvest you have got no-one else to blame but yourself. It's hard enough to produce quality silage, but you can go a long way to protect it once you've got it which is why we use an additive.

"Our bales are also triple wrapped and wrapped at the silage store instead of transporting them wrapped from the field to be stacked. I would be really disappointed if I found mould on any of our bales when we take so many precautions to avoid damaging the bales," said Jonny, who is a past chairman of the Border Union Agricultural Society.

As the brothers are always striving to produce the best quality produce with minimal costs, clovers are relied upon to fertilise grasslands as much as possible. All pooled grassland and arable machinery is shared with friends and neighbours, to reduce costs.

Jonny, who attends to most of the livestock at Whitmuirhaugh, while Charlie focuses more on the arable work, added: "It's always been a good co-operative working area here. We own our own tractors but we have a shared mower conditioner, baler, seed drill, and mainland cultivation equipment, and if something breaks down, we just split the costs at the end. It's a huge cost saving instead of owning everything outright."

Outwith longer term grass leys, which include white clover and are based on a Tintalum grass seed mix from Watson Seeds, red clover is used in shorter leys for cropping and in the arable rotation, producing high D-value silages from three cuts while also adding valuable nitrogen and organic matter to soils.

Such silages were not match for the overall winning crop last year though, with the first red clover crop, which did not receive any fertiliser, producing bales with an ME of 10.8 and a D-value of 67.7, while dry matter and protein levels were 48.2% and 10.8%, respectively.

The second cut which was given a hen pen dressing post harvest, yielded a similar analysis albeit with higher protein values. ME was 10.8 with a D-value of 67.4 with dry matter and protein working out at 43.8% and 15.6%, respectively.

"We are predominantly an arable farm but we need livestock to improve soil organic matter," said Jonny, who lives with his wife, Allison, while son Sandy is an engineer for Scottish Water, and daughter Lucy, works locally.

At present, cattle numbers comprise a closed herd of 63 Aberdeen-Angus and Limousin cross cows and all their progeny, including home-bred heifers retained for breeding and young bulls and steers for finishing. The brothers also contract finish beef cattle for former NFUS president, Nigel Miller.

Most years, cows have access to stubble turnips until Christmas and are then brought inside to straw bedded courts with access to a 4.5-acre paddock for calving in the spring.

Contrary to most beef units, all cows are synchronised and AI'd to calve mostly to an Angus or Limousin - although Simmental and Hereford semen is also used - within a short period of time.

To date, this has proved highly successful amongst the adults, with 70-75% holding to first conception, while the heifers, which Jonny aims to calve at two years of age, have a 55% hold.

Those failing to hold then run with an Angus for one turn only.

Outwith heifers retained for breeding, all progeny are finished off home-grown feeds with the continental cross males kept entire and finished at 12-13-months while Angus and Hereford crosses are finished as steers nearer 15-16months.

Producing superior quality silage and using home-grown feeds ensures such cattle can be finished cheaper too as the fattening ration - based on urea treated barley and silage - often results in daily liveweight gains of at least 1.5kg.

All cattle are sold deadweight, with the Angus crosses cashed through AKS, where the best make £1100 per head, while continentals are sold through Border Livestock Exchange, making £100-£200 per head more.

"The hybrid vigour between the Aberdeen Angus and the Limousin works well, but we do need to get more maternal traits into our females which is why we have introduced a Hereford bull," said Johnny.

"Hereford cross females should make good quiet milky females, and the cross-bred steers should be easy fleshing too," he said pointing out that his daughter, Lucy, is also keen to breed a few pedigree Herefords.

But while Jonny and Charlie - who lives with his wife Judy, while their son Robert is a podiatrist, and their daughter Libby, works for Harbro - have gone out of their way to curtail costs, making ends meet in their beef and arable sectors is proving increasingly challenging. Both feel a break away from Europe is unlikely to help matters either.

Ever the optimists though, they aim to continue for as long as possible, and if nothing else, are able to pursue their hobbies which for Charlie means doing up vintage tractors and ploughs, while Jonny loves to take to the countryside, hill walking.