Borders farm to play host to Scotland's Beef Event
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Adopting the theme “Beef up your Profits” the event will take place at Fans Farm, Earlston, Berwickshire, where hosts Douglas and Kelda Stewart and family will welcome the industry on Thursday, 8 June.
Organised by a local committee under the chairmanship of Sion Williams, farm manager at Bowhill Estate, on behalf of the Scottish Beef Association (SBA), the main sponsor of this biennial national event has been confirmed as the Clydesdale Bank.
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Hide AdSBA chairman, Neil McCorkindale, said that the organisation had been extremely fortunate to have found an excellent venue for the event and welcomed the enthusiastic participation of the Stewart family as host farmers.
Fans is a tenanted farm on the Mellerstain Estate and base for an extensive beef and arable enterprise extending to 2,000 acres and including a commercial suckler herd of 400 Aberdeen-Angus cows crossed with Aberdeen-Angus bulls and all progeny finished on the farm.
“The beef enterprise is an excellent example of an integrated mixed farming business based on home-grown feeding and the utilisation of farm yard manure for the growing of cereals and potatoes,” said the organising committee.
“The high standard of technical efficiency being achieved in producing a high quality beef product, in terms of health, fertility, animal performance, output and meeting market requirements, makes Fans the ideal venue for this year’s Scottish beef event.”
Other features of the day will include a farm tour, trade stands, breed society exhibits, demonstrations, grassland management and seminar. The event will be opened by the Scottish Government’s rural economy and connectivity secretary, Fergus Ewing.
Clydesdale Bank area manager, David Hannon, said Scotland’s Beef Event 2017 was a truly major event for the beef industry and he urged all beef producers to make every effort to attend.
He said: “We are delighted to again be supporting this important biennial event, having experienced the technical and professional excellence of the 2015 programme and having already seen the quality of producer and business involvement lined up for 2017.”
He said that as the beef industry approached the UK and EU changes of the next few years, it was vital that producers focused on the parts of their business within their own control and which they could influence personally – whatever political and economic decisions were taken.