Put your farming knowledge and practical skills to the test

Scott Bourman 

Runner up in the ‘Young Farmer of the Year’ competition was Scott Bourman, a Carluke YFC member from Yieldshields, who runs a busy livestock operation alongside his Uncle.

Scott looks after 500 acres across two farms and one which he rents. He buys in Limousin in-calf or maiden heifers to sell with calves at foot, either at market or privately, and he fattens stores and cows with numbers being increased year on year. Further to this, he buys grit sheep in the spring to lamb them himself and explains that he prefers Suffolk lambs as they fatten the fastest. He also buys store lambs which are finished off grass at home or away wintering with the remainder in the spring finished off on stubble turnips and forage rape, which he says is a good break crop between grass for breaking up the soil and great way of getting fertiliser back in the fields.

Last year he decided to diversify in to a pig enterprise and since May has bought and fattened 800 pigs which he sold on before the cattle were brought in for the winter. Buying the pigs as weaners at 30kg, in 92 day clear out sold them on at an average weight of 114kg live weight. Despite a busy throughput at the farm, Scott took time off to take part in the ‘Young Farmer of the Year’ competition and recalled some of his experiences:

“I actually applied by accident – after Andrew McGregor encouraged me to go along. It was a jam-packed day, with a whole load of things going on to test our knowledge and practical skills on all aspects of farming.

“I really struggled with the arable section but one of the best things about the experience was it was very educational, they explained all the answers at the end, and you took away so much from it. I thoroughly enjoyed completing the business plan part of the process as I like working out figures and it was great experience for future budgeting. It was great to get feedback from the judges and it gives you more confidence within your own operation as I had previously never done anything like that.

“The competition was very well organised and had been well thought out with lots of sponsors and great prizes up for grabs. I don’t think people were aware when they applied that there were very decent prizes for first, second and third place. I received a GPS System for my tractor which was worth around £600.

“I would urge people to apply if anything for the learning experience, not necessarily just to win. Even though I went to college, I had never looked at certain financial projections in such depth before and this made the competition very educational. I also think this year will have a really good turnout of people to the qualifiers as they are holding two days in both Stirling and Dingwall mart so there should be a greater showing from the North this time around,” he explained.

Scottish farming has an ageing problem and as Scott explains, there are less people wanting to chose to follow a career which involves long hours and manual work when they are exposed to a society where the norm has become a 9-5 office job.

“If you take the average age of farmers in Scotland they are going to be retiring soon and something needs to happen to ensure people are going to take their place. There is a lot of work out there, it is whether we have the people with the drive to do it. Regardless of all the politics going on, the world population is growing and despite all this nonsense talk of lab grown meat, people need fed and they need farmers.

“Like all things, the issue comes down to being young and the large capital required to either set up a farming enterprise or take over one, and in this aspect I have been very lucky. It is becoming more of the case that farmers children aren’t wanting to take on the reigns of the business and people from outside the industry just aren’t coming in. There are the jobs, but people aren’t attracted to the constant tie of farming, with it generally being a 7 day a week occupation with little time off. They, understandably in some ways, want an easier job and agriculture certainly doesn’t pay well because there is so little money in it,” he stressed.

Scott explained that the disconnect between farmers and consumers has meant the public are often ignorant of the constraints placed on them daily.

“Many people aren’t aware of the stipulations which farmers face. Brexit is not going to change this as the pressure comes from consumers and supermarkets. Red tape can’t disappear when customers are now accustomed to all the quality assurance schemes for reassurance that they are buying a quality product - now they won’t settle for less and the supermarkets simply want to keep the public happy.

“We are seeing numbers of cattle and sheep reducing and in the long term, there will be a need to return to headage or production style payments to encourage farmers to produce stock or crops, if numbers are ever to increase. One thing I am against is the incentive to plant trees on green fields as this land can be more productively used in my opinion. Financially, I can see the attraction, but it is removing valuable land that is good for food production."

Looking to the future and to make farming more efficient and sustainable, Scott concluded "The biggest problem with farmers is that they wake up today and do what they did yesterday. There is a need to think more innovatively about what can be changed and not to settle for ‘that how it’s always been done' and the Young Farmer of the Year competition is an excellent way to encourage this.".

Douglas Frame

Douglas Frame was another one of the six finalists in the first ever ‘Young Farmer of the Year’ competition, which took place last year. The 25-year-old Carluke YFC member, looks after a beef and sheep farm outside Law village, Carluke, where he is currently building a new house for him and his fiancée Rachel to move in, once they are married this July.

He runs his farm alongside his father and together they look after 120 Aberdeen Angus cross cattle and 130 Texel cross Suffolk ewes. They normally run over 200 sheep and hope to reinstate figures by the Spring when the climate is a little more certain post-Brexit.

Douglas shared with the Scottish Farmer what experience he gained from participating in last year’s competition and how it has improved his attitude to his own farming operation.

“When I was over in New Zealand, I saw first-hand how successful their equivalent to ‘Young farmer of the Year’ has been for the farming community and I was extremely keen to see the competition flourish over here in Scotland. I applied initially as the competition was in its infancy and wanted to make sure it succeeded as much as anything.

“Young Farmer’s has always been great for sports competitions and concerts, which ensure there is a good strong social life outside farming, so that farmers get a chance to switch off. However, this competition differed in that it helped you to develop practical skills and expand your knowledge on the sector in areas you might never have bothered to consider before; I learnt a lot more about renewable energy when I researched my case study.

“A stand out feature to me was the attention paid to health and safety, for example, I can guarantee you not a lot of farmers will wear a helmet when they are on their quad bikes. At the Royal Highland Show we were judged for our quad bike skills and you were marked down for not putting your handbrake on when jumping off the quad to load the trailer or generally not paying attention to safety procedures – this was a great wakeup call and something I am now a lot more educated on. Farmers can be guilty of putting off till tomorrow what they can do today and often health and safety is right down their list of priorities.

“All of the finalists attended a special dinner hosted by the Royal Bank of Scotland, which was almost worth applying for alone. Fantastic food and drink were flowing all night and It was a real celebration of Scottish produce. Many of the attendees were food and drink producers, whose produce was enjoyed over the course of the evening. A gentleman at my table provided the milk from his dairy farm for the ice cream. When Andrew Neilson was announced as the winner, he gave a brilliant speech which delivered a pertinent message to the sponsors; that young farmers aren’t just about having a laugh but take the industry and their work very seriously and are proud of what they achieve. The whole evening certainly sold a great story for Scottish agriculture,” enthused Douglas.

Looking to the future, Douglas explained that in order to keep his business sustainable, he is constantly looking at ways to maintain a low input system and actively seeks the views from others on ways in which he could streamline his practices.

“I might be naive here, but as much as everyone warns of Brexit, the reality is people need fed and in the short time all we can do is to work hard and streamlines our businesses as best we can.

“Our business is straight forward, we run a low input system and try and keep prices as cheap as possible by, for example, having good calvers which need little interference during calving, keeping vet costs down. Last year only three of our cows needed assistance and this also feeds back in to better fertility and in turn increased profitability.

“We were a finalist in Scotch beef farm of the year at Agriscot last year which was an amazing experience and we want to keep looking at ways to improve the work we are doing. I’m part of a beef and sheep group in Lanarkshire where we visit each other’s farms and talk about how different systems work and share ideas. It is helpful to have an outside perspective on how your farm is doing and I think this type of collaborative working between farming is what the industry needs more of moving forwards, as we are all in it together at the end of the day.

“I think part of the problem within farming is people can think that they are alone in tackling tough times, but often the bad stories don’t make it on to social media, so we can be blind to the realities many face. We need to be less ashamed as an industry of the hardships we encounter; mental health is a real problem in farming and people need to realise that they aren’t alone,” urged Douglas