IMPROVING year-on-year has long been the Dandie family’s key to success, and it is this constant progression that made them stand out as finalists for the AgriScot Arable Farm of the Year Award.

The family have been farming in West Lothian for four generations, and although Learielaw Farm has always been a mix of livestock and arable, little else has stayed the same.

“Over the last 20 years we have expanded more into contract farming,” David Dandie explained. “Our own land is 200 ha, but with the contracted land we are now farming 1212 ha. We also strive to do better wherever we can – we try new varieties, work hard to improve our soil, and we also try to make use of technology as much as possible.”

As well as the family – father Walter, his brother Robert, and Walter’s sons David and William – the business also employs three full time staff, (one of whom is full time on the family's HGV lorry), which allows them to ensure they farm every single hectare to the highest possible standard.

“We don’t cut corners,” David said. “We take pride in how we do things, and we make sure our staff farm to the same standard we do. All of the farms we contract farm came to us, to ask us to manage their land, which is great, because it shows we are doing a good job, and people can see it.”

Despite the difficult weather experienced across the country this year, Learielaw had a good harvest this autumn, which the family put down partly to the efforts to increase the organic matter in the soil.

“It’s very important to us to have healthy soil,” said Walter, “and as we have livestock on farm we have always used the muck on the arable land. Of course now we are contracting we have more ground to cover, so we buy in compost to ensure all the fields get that organic matter. I think that’s what made a real difference for us this year, and in any year where you get extreme conditions, having that high quality soil just makes your farm more resilient.”

The farm works on a five/six year rotation of winter barley, oilseed rape, winter wheat, winter wheat/spring barley, spring barley, and the family don’t rely on established varieties but are always on the lookout for new breeds which offer strong yields and good disease resistance.

“There is less you can do on the malting barley side,” David admitted, “but with other crops, like wheat or feed barley, you can try out new things. This year we have planted about 100 acres of feed barley KWS Gimlet, which is being fast tracked through the system, as it has a 3% yield advantage over the current two row top performers.

“That’s doesn’t mean it will work for us though, but it’s great to have the opportunity to try out these varieties before they go into commercial production.”

For David there is always more they can do to improve – he recently installed a tractor app which allows him to manage the machinery on farm far more efficiently, which is especially helpful when they are sowing or harvesting such a large area of land.

He also wouldn’t be averse to taking on more contracted land: “We would expand in future, if the right opportunity came along. I know we are capable of taking on more land, and doing a great job with it.”