Stuart Mitchell, 29, is a head partner of a 440-hectare mixed family farm in the Scottish borders, running cattle, deer and arable enterprises.
Home
Farming was always my future.I could not wait for school to end so I could run home and jump in a tractor.
Since coming home from university, I got my head into the farm and have been head of the business for three years, working alongside my wife and parents.
In those three years the farm has changed significantly.We originally farmed 1,000 Lleyn ewes, 130 suckler cows and finished all stock on home-grown forage and cereals.
On finding that our sheep had a high level of maedi visna, we made the difficult decision to disperse our flock.
Changes
In place of the sheep, we now farm 330 red deer and have increased our cattle and arable.Moving to deer from sheep was a massive jump and took considerable planning, both financial and practical.
Introducing deer to the farm got me more involved in running the business, rather than just working on it.
Having a succession plan in place early and good communication has helped the farm progress to where it is today.
I work well with my parents who are open to new ideas and are not afraid to let me have a go.Now it is my responsibility if I mess something up.
Progress
More recently, we have started organic conversion and arefocused on making the farm more resilient and less reliant on inputs.
Without sheep eating all the grass we tried out-wintering some of our cattle.
This has been a success and we now out-winter almost all our cattle and are able to keepyoungstock outside much longer.
This reduction in winter costs has made a big difference to our bottom line.
Seeing the benefits of having more taller grass has changed our mindset about grazing, which led us into the world of regenerative farming.
In the last two years we have set up a mob grazing system and have done no-till and living mulch trials.
I believe regenerative farming is where farming needs to be heading.
Regen farming is not new.It is going back to basics, to a time before the poisons of fertilisers and pesticides. Working with nature not against it.
Weeds and pests are symptoms of nature being unsettled.We need to find the cause, rather than the quick fix in a bottle.
