Renowned dairy farmer turns his hand to beef production

Respected Scottish farmer, James Brown, is no dairy farm casualty. Poor market conditions in the sector prompted the well-known pedigree dairy farmer to transform his family’s traditional core business into a large-scale, commercially successful beef enterprise.

Yet despite the shift to commercial cattle a relatively short time ago, Jim (as he prefers to be called) has become one of the highest profile beef farmers in Scotland and is in regular demand all over the UK as a speaker and consultant.

Jim concedes he has done well and puts the farm’s success down to his ability to choose quality cattle, which are then produced on a good grass silage-based system.

“My entrepreneurial skills in marketing the beef probably has a lot to do with it as well,” he says.

A farmer at heart, he is the fourth generation on his grandmother’s line to have worked at Gaindykehead Farm, just outside Airdrie in central Scotland.

He arrived at Gaindykehead as a young boy in 1963 from his father’s farm next door. Jim was the sixth generation to have been born there.

Fifty years ago, the 129-hectare (320-acre) holding looked very different from the farm it is today. There were few useful livestock buildings, no electricity - only paraffin lamps - no water and, as was the case in those days, the toilet was outside.

When he began at the farm, there were only 22 head of Ayrshire cattle, compared with today’s number of just over 600 commercial beef cross-breds, so additional buildings were gradually added to house the ever-growing number of cattle.

Under his direction there has been a continuing programme of work carried out to improve the quality of the land.

Silage secrets

Originally, the farm had been covered in waist-high threshes and the family took advantage of the grants available at that time to drain and re-seed the land.

Back then the grass was used to feed the dairy cattle, but nowadays it is used for silage. The quality of this silage has earned Jim many awards over the years with the Grassland Society.

He strongly believes the secret of good silage is a correct blend of seed mix. Just as important is spreading slurry and fertiliser at the correct time, as is getting the timing right for cutting - never in the morning, always in the afternoon, when sugars are higher in the grass.

Similar to many other farmers, Jim wilts silage for 24 hours and rows for another 24 before it is brought in to be clamped as quickly as possible. For that reason, there are always two tractors working to roll it in.

Up until three years ago, silage-making was carried out by Jim, his staff and farm workers from neighbouring farms. But, finding it increasingly difficult to employ staff to maintain production, he decided to employ contractors to manage silage production.

“Changing to contractors went very smoothly, it has made no difference to the quality of silage,except it is costing us slightly more,” he says.

Jim now has just one part-time member of staff, who comes in five afternoons a week to lend a hand, as well as his son, John, who works full-time on the farm.

Traditionally, Gaindykehead was famous for its Holsteins and Jim produced about 20 top show cows during the time Holsteins were on the farm.

Such was his success, which Jim puts down to good old-fashioned Scottish stockmanship, he retains the distinction of having the same three cows take the top spot at both the Royal Highland and the Royal Show in 1990.

Humble beginnings

The beef enterprise began in 1971. Alongside this, 17 pedigree Holsteins were first imported onto the farm in 1971 from Ontario in Canada, paid for with money from a home-bred Simmental calf, which had been sold to America for £5,000.

Each cow produced between 9,000 to 10,000 litres of milk, which was then sold to Wiseman Dairies. But in 2004, Jim made the radical decision to re-evaluate the business and switch completely to beef.

“I needed a change of lifestyle,” he says. “Finding staff to milk the cows was becoming increasingly hard and getting time off was extremely difficult.”

The changing climate was also a factor in his decision.

“Although the amount of rainfall hadn’t really changed over the years, summers were becoming noticeable wetter and it was becoming more and more difficult to leave the cows out,” he says.

Two years after that initial decision, the milk tanker made its final journey to the farm, and in 1985 he sold the herd of Simmentals to concentrate on commercial cattle.

“Taking this business decision allowed my business to grow with an increased turnover, something that hadn’t been possible with the pedigree cattle.”

In the same year, he began renting a second farm nearby, which was also used for cattle and silage up until earlier this year, when it was decided to move everything over to Gaindykehead to make life easier.

For the next five years, Jim bought commercial suckler calves and sold them as strong stores, before changing to a finishing system.

With this in mind, he began purchasing stronger commercial store cattle, buying usually at around 480 to 500kg, keeping them for about 117 days and letting them go at around 650 to 700kg.

Most breeding is Limousin, Charolais, Simmental and Angus, with purchasing taking place at local marts such as Lanark, Caledonian in Stirling, Forfar and Ayr.

Cattle are fed once a day on a ratio of 40kg potatoes to 7kg silage, fed using a diet feeder.

A tyre in front of a loader is used to push the potatoes back in the passages every evening and all the ‘reject’ potatoes come from a nearby potato packing plant, bought at between £8 to £20 a tonne.

Jim now uses 9,000 tonnes of potatoes a year and the cattle outside are fed similar to inside ones, using potatoes and grass. The outside ones, however, are fed using feed bunkers. “I haven’t had to buy a bag of potatoes in a very long time,” he laughs.

Investment

Four years ago, it became clear a large amount of capital investment was needed to change core elements of the management system.

One of Jim’s plans was to increase the slurry storage from five weeks to seven months - at a cost of around £90,000. This reduced fertiliser usage from 120 tonnes a year to 20 tonnes, and his initial plan to recoup the money over an eight-year period is on target to be regained after three years.

So far, he is exceptionally pleased with the results. “It was easy to implement and financially it has turned out better than expected.”

Around 13,600 litres (3,000 gallons) of slurry is spread by umbilical and tanker, along with 40 units of fertiliser, yielding just over 21 tonnes of silage per hectare (8.5 tonnes/acre).

Similar to many beef farmers, Jim has regular clients who require meat from local farms. Scotch beef, who supply Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s, is one of his largest clients, but he also sells to four local butchers, three shops in London (through the Macduff producer group), one in Brussels as well as Highland Meats and Morrisons.

“The Scottish meat brand is the best there is and is very much in demand, especially in London,” he says.

Jim realises 297p/kg for an average of 360kg. Over the next three months he is looking to enhance margins by improving the weights of the cattle by 20kg when they go out, as well as improving the U grades, currently running at 25 per cent, to around 35.

Outside of the farm gate, Jim has spent more than 20 years being involved in agri-politics as well as being vice chairman of the Scottish Milk Marketing Board for eight years.

It comes as no surprise to realise the farm has played host to many visitors from all over the world, and up until the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001, the farm averaged around 600 visitors a year.

Profitable grass

In the 1960s Jim was very much involved with the Scottish Agricultural College and worked closely with the late Dr John Frame, who was a grassland pioneer in producing more profitable grass.

Originally, people would visit the farm to witness the innovative methods and management Jim used. Then attention turned to his dairying.

Visitors were keen to see the Holsteins and today, of course, it is the beef system that welcomes farmers, students and agricultural groups and, in particular, an increase in Irish visitors, eager to gain an insight into one of Scotland’s most successful farms.

Although at times, when mistakes have been made, it would have been preferable to have kept them quiet, Jim believes it is vital to adopt an open farm policy to allow for an exchange of ideas. You should never stop learning, he says.

Future plans for do not necessarily involve cattle. His son, John, is already looking at the viability of a wind croft on the farm, a diversification many farmers nowadays are moving into.

Whichever way the Brown family decide to go next, one suspects past experience and future planning will ensure the success of the Scottish brand.

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