Field Margins: Jim Logan's optimistic take on 2026

The New Year is always a good time to reflect on and appraise the previous season and should be carried out in a critical, honest manner, but always in a positive way.

For sure, not all the previous years’ decisions or outcomes will have been favourable, but there is almost always an opportunity to learn from mistakes or misfortune and make positive changes going forward.

As Winston Churchill once said, ‘The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible!’

Along with most others, we have welcomed the government’s U-turn on agricultural and business inheritance tax, where a modicum of common sense has thankfully prevailed. The unnecessary stress caused by the previous proposals over the last year or so has verged on unforgivable, but hopefully if nothing else, the difficult conversation around succession may have begun in a lot more families than might otherwise have been the case.

The sheep in the borders have had a kind winter having managed to avoid the thick snow seen in other areas (Image: web)

Succession planning

Our own views on succession remain largely positive, despite having already been part of an abject failure in that regard in recent years. Hopefully, the focus brought on the subject by Starmer, Reeves, et al. will see succession in our industry being addressed earlier and turned into the positive it should be for farming families and businesses, rather than being kicked down the road until it develops into a boil that needs lanced.

If our own business is to remain vibrant, relevant and progressive, our younger partners must be introduced to responsibility and autonomy whilst being encouraged to pursue continual personal development as soon as they are able.

With all this in mind, the winter has also seen our family engage with Heather Wildman of Saviour Associates, using well spent FAS funding to walk us through our own succession journey. The process was quite enlightening and especially comforting when the younger generation (showing terrific maturity and empathy for one another) came up with very simple solutions to the trickier ‘problems’.

The process has also left us all with more clarity around our own roles within the business and a much clearer understanding of future timelines and each other’s goals. Most importantly, having involved the whole family, as well as an independent, it feels that we can all be ‘held to account’ for any moving, or even the complete removal, of the goalposts further down the line!

Personal development and continually learning something new has always been important to me, and in January I look forward to attending both the British Cattle Breeders Conference (which helps satisfy my thirst for knowledge around the scientific side of our industry) as well as another day with the alumni of the Rural Leaders programme, where I hope to further build my effectiveness whilst steadily moving towards a more supporting role within the family business.

On the same note, son James has attended the Cultivating Leaders programme with the SAYFC, and we are indebted to the organisation for his opportunity. We look forward to partly repaying our gratitude with our support of their Big Build Burns Trilogy at Ingliston in mid-February. Many of us in the industry owe SAYFC a huge debt of gratitude and we look forward to seeing many of you there!

Rural support

New Year also sees us all still awaiting further ‘clarity’ on the future shape and level of rural support in Scotland. We must, however, be careful not to waste too much time and energy worrying over or overthinking outcomes that we as individuals will have little influence.

As business managers and owners, our time and effort are probably better spent concentrating within the farm gate, and New Year is the perfect time for another deep dive into farm budgets and plans that will have a more direct, sustainable and often quicker effect and payback. Putting off big, fundamental changes to ‘wait and see’ can easily end up costing far more than any possible gain in the longer term.

On a practical note, sheep in our area have enjoyed a very kind winter so far, having escaped the very heavy snow experienced in other areas. With a bit of shifting about and fencing, ewes, hoggs and finishing lambs have had ample feed in front of them up to now and should continue to do so if the weather plays its part.

Finishing lambs have continued to perform reasonably well with growth rates in the 150-180g/day range keeping cash-flow ticking along nicely and another 300 due to go this week. A mixture of our own young grass along with rented organic clover and a big field of post-harvest forage rape have proven much more cost effective than the high levels of concentrate feed used last year.

We’ve still a while to wait for our first ewe scanning session when we’ll find out if the very dry spell last summer had any negative effect on fertility. History tells me that despite the kind autumn and plentiful grass at that point, the edge might well be knocked off scanning. Time will tell.

Synchronised cows

Cows have generally scanned fairly well with 91% of the 168 in-calf in nine weeks, and an almost 94% scan if twins are included. As feared, the cows synchronised for ET work let the side down a bit with 40% (6) of the yeld females being in one group of 35 recipients and overall ET pregnancies being limited to around 40%.

I’ve often found this to be the hidden cost of our ET work, and along with an extended calving pattern will considerably add to the real cost of each ET calf born. The whole programme had come under immediate pressure when the very experienced technician, for the first time ever, said on implant day that he had ‘a really good feeling about today’! We’ve done the whole process often enough to know that you must work on an average, and other years’ results will be much better than expected. As Del Boy often said, ‘This time next year, Rodney…….’

On a more positive note, our experiment with the increased creep feed saw calf weaning weights increase by around 40kg. Even taking a slightly earlier average birth date into account, (no ET work last year) this is a significant improvement in performance.

As suggested last time, we’ve shut calves down to 1kg of concentrate per day already and will reduce again soon to keep a lid on total wintering costs, while hoping to still benefit from significant compensatory growth next spring at grass. The not insignificant extra work of creep feeding will only be seen as being worthwhile if we end up with more sellable kg next autumn as forward stores. The equation and resultant feeding policy for those calving earlier and selling yearling calves at turnout, (or even earlier), might obviously be very different.

Winter in the Borders also sees a round of ‘Farmers’ Days’ at most of the rugby clubs, with invitations being a cosseted gift from friends. These days have grown to be some of the most important fund raisers in the calendar for the respective rugby clubs, even if the actual rugby match is cancelled! Taking advantage of the ‘charitable nature’ of a big room of well fed, jovial farmers and friends seem to be a winning formula; not surprising given that the donations are generally in the form of ‘beer tokens’ handed across the bar.

From a social and well-being point of view these days are hard to put a value on. What other industry could bring together groups of sometimes nearly 200 people in one room, often simultaneously in two clubs on the same day, in such a small geographical area, all enjoying each other’s company. How lucky we are to be part of it. Here’s to 2026.