BEEF AND sheep farmers attending the upcoming free open day at Kirkton and Auchtertyre, the hill farming research farms run by Scotland’s Rural College near Crianlarich, will be the latest in a long line of local and foreign visitors interested in the latest thinking about improving the performance and health of hill sheep and cattle.

“We have had a lot of international visitors to the farms over the past two years” said the head of SRUC’s hill and mountain research centre Professor Davy McCracken. “The more we talk to livestock researchers and farmers from across the globe, the more we recognise that they face agricultural challenges in common with our own hill farmers in Scotland. Our open day is an opportunity for hill farmers and crofters to discuss with us directly the issues affecting them.”

Beginning at 10am and ending by 4.30pm on Thursday August 18, the event will involve presentations from local SRUC farm and research staff together with invited specialists, including vets from SAC Consulting Veterinary Services, the Moredun Research Institute and University of Edinburgh. Morning and afternoon sessions have been arranged to ensure visitors get to cover management and health issues in both sheep and cattle.

“In the past 12 months at Kirkton/Auchtertyre we have made much more use of automation, including our weigh crate, and the double conveyor system that makes handling sheep so much better for them and the staff,” said Prof McCracken. “Claire Morgan- Davies and Harriet Wishart from SRUC and Dave McBean of the Moredun will be at the fank to discuss the financial savings made and also how the new facilities help with the new Targeted Selective Treatment approach to treating parasites like worms.”

Of added interest for sheep farmers will be the grassland experiments, with two different systems of grazing management. One is focussed on making better seasonal use of the grass available across all the hills on the farms, while the other concentrates on using the grazing at lower levels and land inbye the farms for finishing lambs over the winter. There will be information on how the two systems affect the economics, the grass mixtures used, livestock health, welfare and performance.

There will also be veterinary advice from SAC Consulting Veterinary Services manager at Auchincruive, Frank Malone, while PhD Student Ping Zhou, with her supervisor Neil Sargison of Edinburgh University, will explain her research into the differences in performance of Scottish Blackface and the Welsh Lleyn sheep breeds. John Holland and Tony Waterhouse, both from the Hill and Mountain Research Centre, will discuss how farm drones are being used to try to identify soil and grassland issues.

“We haven’t forgotten the cattle,” stressed Prof McCracken. “In the cattle shed my Inverness based colleague Franz Brulisauer of SAC Consulting Veterinary Services, will describe his investigations into abortions and stillbirths in beef suckler herds.

"A presentation by Philip Skuce of the Moredun Research Institute will outline the factors affecting the increased risk from liver fluke parasites on hill farms, while respected SRUC expert Ian Pritchard will review the best approaches to improve the efficiency of suckler cow herds."

Although the Kirkton/Auchtertyre event is free, it would help those providing the complimentary lunch if those planning to attend register with SAC Consulting offices in Oban (01631 563093) or Stirling (01786 450964) with details of any special dietary needs. The event will start at the Auchtertyre steading, so use that entrance and the parking facilities available there.

SRUC acknowledges the funding it receives from the Scottish Government’s Strategic Research Programme RESAS 2016-21.