Bowhill Farming Ltd

The Farm:

Located in the breath taking Scottish Borders, Bowhill Farming Ltd forms part of Buccleuch, one of lowland Scotland’s largest estates extending to 82,000 Hectares.

Bowhill Farming Ltd covers 6,555 hectares with the majority of land lying between the Yarrow and Ettrick Valleys. The farm runs 200 premium health pure Aberdeen Angus cows, producing breeding stock for replacements and selling. The farm also runs a suckler cow herd of 340 cows, a 7,150 ewe hill flock of Scottish Blackfaced/South Country Cheviot and an upland flock of 1,350 breeding ewes, supplying lamb to Sainsbury’s. A new addition to the business is 300 Breeding hinds which will be used to produce venison for Dovecote Park.

Arable cropping includes winter barley, spring barley, spring oats and kale, mainly for stock feed.

Bowhill also operates a 200kW Anaerobic Digester and a 32,000 free range hen laying unit which are seen as key business assets with chicken muck manure utilised by the AD plant as well as livestock manures throughout the arable and grassland enterprises.

Livestock

Animal husbandry and comfort is of paramount importance; stringent attention to detail and careful monitoring of herd and stock health ensures optimum performance. The hill flock of 5,150 Scottish Blackfaced and 2,000 South Country Cheviot breeding ewes are maintained on the heather moorland and Bowhill also runs a 1,350 in-bye flock of Pure Abermax, Primera, plus crossbreeds such as Aberfield and Aberdale X Blackfaced ewes. All progeny from the flocks are retained for replacements, sold for breeding or sold fat. The cattle enterprise consists of 540 cows producing replacements and selling store cattle at 12 months of age under a sealed bid auction. Shepherds and Cattlemen are responsible for the overall health and welfare of individual flocks/herds and increasingly the use of precision monitoring techniques are being used, for example electronic boluses for heat and calving detection in cattle and Faecal Egg Counting in both enterprises. All enterprises are costed and benchmarked and the farm has a strong commitment to trialling new techniques and knowledge exchange. It has been an active partner in a number of research projects with Quality Meat Scotland and Sainsbury’s including the Ram Compare and Rotational Grazing Projects. The farm is currently an Agri Epicentre Smart Farm trialing numerous technologies including Smaxtec Boluses, No-Fence Collars, Water Weighers, Variable rate soil analysis, Variable Rate Anthelmintic administration.

Conservation

Maintaining and improving the wealth of wildlife features across the farm and estate has always been a key priority. All farming operations are carried out with sensitivity to the environment and Bowhill includes a large area of heather moor which is managed primarily for biodiversity, including black grouse leks. Hedgerows are being planted, which are managed sensitively to provide food and habitat for insects, birds and small mammals. The wider farmland lends itself to a healthy population of biodiversity due to its inherent heterogeneity of habitats.

Particular interests/farming issues:

• Further use of technology in farming
• Supply chains and improving welfare standards on farms
• Less reliance on subsidies and ensuring quality products.

Visits
Bowhill has a long tradition of welcoming visitors onto the Estate and offers open access for walkers. It is an active member of RHET (Royal Highland Education Trust) and hosts a number of visits throughout the year. The farm is an excellent example of Integrated Farm Management (IFM) in action, balancing a thriving business with positive

Visit this farm

Click here to arrange a visit to this LEAF Demonstration Farm.