Constantly improving their steading to allow for increased numbers in their beef finishing business is Jim Orr and family based at Rumbletonlaw Farm, Greenlaw.
Jim, alongside his wife Fiona, son Jordie and two full-time employees, Martin Budge and Jack Laidlaw, farm 2000 cattle on their 1200-acre light sandy loam finishing farm. Both Jim and Jordie are familiar faces in the auction ring, regularly purchasing store cattle at marts including Dumfries, Lanark, Ayr and Newton Stewart.
The pair buy in and finish up to 4000 cattle a year, aged from 12 months plus. The cattle purchased are a variety of breeds including Aberdeen Angus, British Blue, Limousin, and Simmental crosses.
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The livestock are transported by local haulier Redpath Livestock, where they remain on farm for approximately 90-120 days.
Once the cattle arrive, they will be weighed once and are not weighed again until leaving the farm for slaughter, selling through ABP, Kepak, Scotbeef, and Dunbia.
Having moved to Rumbletonlaw Farm 30 years ago from Hillhead Farm at Musselburgh, there have certainly been various changes. Jim said: “When we arrived here there were three old-fashioned cattle sheds, enough to hold approximately 230 head of cattle. However, the design of the original sheds meant it was extremely labour intensive.”
The increasing costs of renting nearby farm buildings due to lack of housing capacity and a desire to increase herd numbers meant that the Orr family would begin investing in more sheds.
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“I’ve experienced what it’s like to have cattle spaced out on various holdings, spending half the day going between them just trying to keep up with feeding and bedding – we try to keep things straightforward and efficient here,” Jim added.
The design and layout of Thorburn’s sheds enables Martin and Jack to cover the day-to-day feeding and bedding throughout the year with large, modern machinery.
It was in 2021 that Jim first contacted the Thornburn Group to commission the build of a cattle shed.
Since then, Thorburn has continued to work alongside Jim and his completed a total of seven sheds, including two slatted sheds, five straw bedded sheds and a feed store, the most recent installation.
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Sheds are fully kitted inside with gates and water troughs also purchased from Thorburn Group.
“Thornburn were first on the list despite undergoing quotes from other construction companies – they stood out due to their locality and their customer service which proves second to none,” said Jim.
Thornburn Group has premises located in both Berwick and Duns, and provides a range of services including steel frame construction and fabrication, bespoke livestock handling systems, plus the installation and maintenance of grain dryers and stores.
The cattle shed serves as a prime example of the style of sheds seen throughout the farm ever since, featuring displaced sheeting to allow for increased ventilation, outer feed passageways optimising housing space, and a flush finish between H beams and head barriers to allow a telehandler bucket to easily clean up feed.
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The majority of the barriers are manufactured onsite by Martin, Jordie and Jack using steel from a local blacksmith, C and G Sharp.
“The fact that they follow the process from start to finish with service from local workers I think really adds to the team’s desire for attention to detail,” said Jim.
The sheds range in size: one of the slatted sheds is 300ft x 30ft and the other is 180ft x 60ft. Both are 18ft to the eaves gutters.
The concrete walls inside the shed stand at six feet high. The combined slatted tanks can hold 1,770,000 gallons with various mixing traps throughout the shed.
Both slatted sheds are capable of holding 500 head of cattle which are divided into 20 pens, and this is where the cattle are housed for the first month before they move onto straw for the final fattening process.
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Rainwater is also collected from the roof and fed back to the water troughs for the cattle. “The decision to invest in slatted sheds 10 years ago became apparent after difficulties sourcing straw due to wet harvests, therefore to future-proof our business and add a sense of security we opted for the slats,” he added.
Leading to the five straw bedded sheds, these vary in size due to some being redeveloped from existing sheds on the farm. However, the scale can reach up to 300ft x 60ft with concrete and building foundations sourced from Blinkbonny Quarry.
“It is important when developing the layout of the yard to remember that machinery is only getting bigger and for us, we have artic lorries arriving all the time including during the night – they need to be able to get in and out with very little manoeuvring,” said Jim, adding that the feed store is the latest addition to the farm, standing at 160ft x 80ft and a height of 29ft at the apex.
“Previously the feed store was situated on the other side of the farmyard from the pit and this increased time and wear on machinery travelling between, so the shed has allowed us to improve our efficiency when feeding,” he added, with the diet of the herd made up by animal nutritionist Archie Leitch from Almins.
Composed of a ration from various by-products from the food and drink industry as well as homegrown wheat, barley, silage, and fodder beet, this is then fed to the cattle using a Kverneland Siloking TrailedLine 4.0 Premium diet feeder with a hopper capacity of 30 m³.
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Molasses is also used and stored in a large 270 tonne tank. It is important for Jim to ensure they have adequate storage to feed the number of cattle housed.
As part of a trial, the farm produced 60 acres of fodder beet last year, amounting to 2500 tonnes – Jim would like to increase that this year to help reduce feed costs.
All the grain grown on the farm is treated, crimped, and stored in a pit using black plastic sheeting covered in newly-purchased tyre rings.
Cattle are bedded three times per week as they are housed all year round, using a trailed Teagle bedder. “Affording new structure never comes easy and we have gone with the principle of building a shed as and when we can afford.
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“From building our first steel-framed cattle shed in 2001 costing £36,000, the figures have increased so much so that the feed store constructed in autumn 2023 was in excess of £200,000.
“The investment in the sheds continues to pay back and the aim is to maintain growth of the business by increasing housing capacity and stock numbers, while always seeking to improve efficiency,” concluded Jim.
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