Lothian And Borders Farmers Invited To Participate In New Arable Monitor Farm‏

Higher grain prices bring optimism to arable farming but newchallenges arise: rising costs, volatile grain markets and managingthe environment.

Now farmers and those in allied trades who want to address thesechallenges are being invited to participate in an exciting new MonitorFarm project. Anyone interested in finding out more about theproject should attend the first meeting on 20th November at 1.30pmat Woodhead Farm, Gifford, East Lothian courtesy of farmer, MrHugh Broad.

The project at Woodhead is one of the first two ARABLE MonitorFarm projects in Scotland and is supported by HGCA, in partnershipwith the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise and facilitatedby SAC.

The purpose of this first meeting is to explain to local farmers howthe Monitor Farm will work, describe and see the farm and getfeedback on the main topics that are of importance to theirbusinesses and that they think the project should address.

Project facilitator, Chris McDonald, Senior Agricultural Consultant,SAC said:

"The main aim of the Monitor Farm project is to help arable farmersin the area to improve the performance of their farm.

"Farmers coming along to the meeting will have the opportunity tojoin the 'Monitior Farm group' which will meet regularly at the farmover the next three years and will contribute to decisions on the farmstrategy and provide innovative ideas for the farm.

"New ideas and practices put forward by the group will be tried andtested at Woodhead. The objective is that the farmers in the groupwill be inspired to make similar changes to their systems.

"This is an exciting opportunity for arable businesses to determineand tackle their costs of production and to manage the marketing oftheir crops more effectively."

All are welcome to attend. However, to help with arrangements forthe day those planning to come along should contact the facilitator: Chris McDonald, SAC, Bush Estate.T: 0131 535 3430, E:

chris.mcdonald@sac.co.uk, F: 0131 5353431 Notes:The purpose of this first meeting is to explain to local farmers howthe Monitor Farm will work, describe and see the farm and getfeedback on what they want from future meetings.

The meeting will include

. a discussion about the aims and objectives of the project, with IainRiddell SAC Monitor Farms coordinator

. a farm tour of Woodhead . an introduction to the farm Chris McDonald, Senior AgriculturalConsultant, SAC

. a description of the main enterprises, Hugh Broad, WoodheadFarm About the farm Woodhead extends to 217ha

. of which about 185ha. is cropped.Additional land is contract farmed. The winter cropping area andvarieties sown at Woodhead currently include:

.Winter Wheat 95 ha: Alchemy, Riband and a blend of Zebedee,Alchemy and Riband

. Winter Barley 40ha; Pearl for malting and Saffron for seed

. Winter Oilseed rape 29ha; Lioness