Making the Most of Machinery at Angus Monitor Farm

Maximising your use of machinery and technology will be the focus of the next Angus Monitor Meeting on Thursday 13 December.

Mary Munro from Strutt and Parker will share the findings of the recent machinery review carried out at Mill of Inverarity and compare their findings to those found across AHDB’s monitor farm network. The machinery review looks at costs including machinery, labour and cost per operation, for example the cost per hectare of ploughing, rolling or combining.

Morayshire Monitor Farmer Iain Green will also be at the event to discuss Corskie Farm’s new Beef Monitor system which weighs cattle each time they take a drink.

The group will find out more about how the 50 cross bred finishing bulls using the system have been getting on. It’s already proving to be good value with Iain able to monitor the performance of his stock using an app on his phone.

Iain uses the Beef Monitor to keep an eye on his bulls’ growth without having to handle them or put them through races which is he feels is less stressful for the livestock as well as saving time and labour costs.

The Angus Management Team have also been trialling different fodder beet varieties over three different farms (including the Mill) and at the meeting Kirsten Williams from SAC Consulting will reveal how the varieties have performed in terms of volume produced, crude protein and metabolisable energy (ME).

“There is a lot of choice for farmers growing forage for stock and we wanted to look at which offered the best value for money.” Monitor Farmer Rob Stodart explains. “However it’s not as simple as looking at which was cheapest to grow and produced the best yield. We will also be discussing how to match stock to the correct fodder to get the best results.”

Mill of Inverarity is part of the Monitor Farm Scotland initiative, managed by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) and AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds with funding from the Scottish Government. The aim of the monitor farm programme is to help improve the productivity, profitability and sustainability of Scottish farm businesses.

The meeting will be held at Forfar Auction Mart, starting at 11am and closing at 3pm. The event is free to attend but to lunch will be provided so to assist with catering attendees should book a place by contacting Stacey Hamilton by phone (01569 762305) or email (frbsstonehaven@sac.co.uk).

For more information about the monitor farm programme visit www.monitorfarms.co.uk.