MELDRUM farm, Blair Drummond, has claimed the much sought-after title of Scottish Dairy Farm of the Year at this year’s AgriScot.

Winning dairy farmer David Hamilton, of Wm. Hamilton and Son, milks 826 Holsteins, with a production average of 11955kg and a first calving age of 23.5 months, said: “We are delighted to have won. We have an excellent team and it’s great for them to be rewarded in this way. We had incredibly strong opposition and so a win amongst such good company really helps us to continue striving to improve what we do and keep our focus on the future."

Judging the award, which was sponsored by Ice Robotics, was Donald Millar from Trailflat farm, Lochmaben, who was a member of last year’s winning team and a previous winner at AgriScot of the business person of the year. Mr Millar was given the task of selecting the top farms from over 800 across the country and judging the final 20 and then to the final four.

He based his selection on items that related to long lasting happy cows, efficiency of production and profit such as calving age, calving index, yield and quality of milk produced, somatic cell counts and the percent of lactations that were five or over. During the farm visits, Donald studied nutrition, calf rearing, cow comfort and many other things relating to good management, including sire selection criteria.

Mr Millar remarked on the high quality standards involved in this year’s category and what underlying features made Meldrum the eventual winner: “All the top twenty were a great credit to Scottish dairy farming and the top four were outstanding in every respect, but I chose Meldrum as they had every facet of costs and income under control during a very difficult year with great calf rearing and cow comfort management. They had outstanding forage quality with the multi cut silage system. They also had a very healthy herd and great credit for allowing school children and veterinary students to visit the farm to encourage the next generation."