Four top holdings are set to go head-to-head as the competition for the AgriScot Scottish Dairy Farm of the Year Award reaches its final stages this week.
Following the announcement of the top 20 last month, the performance factors have been assessed, the tough decisions have been made and AgriScot have now announced the top four farms in the running.
Jimmy Goldie, of Carrs Billington and the official assessor for the AgriScot Scottish Dairy Farm of the Year awards 2016, will this week visit four finalists for an on farm assessment, with the final accolade announced at AgriScot on Wednesday 16th November.
Mr Goldie had the difficult task of selecting the top four purely from performance details related to their breed averages such as calving age, calving index, somatic cell count, yields and longevity within the herd without seeing any names or addresses, and is now looking forward to visiting the farms to study everything from calf rearing, sire selection, practical management techniques, feeding and nutrition programmes and to view happy, healthy and contented cows.
The top four farms in contention for the Scottish Dairy Farm of the Year award, in alphabetical order, are:
– A Colquhoun Ltd., Dendoldrum, Inverbervie, Kincardineshire
– Wm. Hamilton & Son, Meldrum, Blairdrummond, Stirling
– K & I Millar & Sons, Trailflat, Lochmaben, Lockerbie
– University of Edinburgh, Langhill Farm, Roslin, Midlothian.
Jimmy had the following to say about the four finalists:
“I was extremely impressed by the quality of the top twenty finalists, so having to whittle it down to just four farms was not an easy task! All my decisions were made based on the recorded figures of each herd, and it was only when I had decided on the final four that I was given the names.”
“We know from the milk recorded figures that these are four extremely good farms, it will be very, very interesting to see who takes the crown.”
Average performance figures for the top four are 467 cows 11229 litres in 305 days at 3.8% fat, 3.2% protein, calving age 24 months and calving index 387 days.
The Scottish Dairy Farm of the Year award is kindly sponsored by Cogent Breeding Ltd.
