Hanging on in bonnie Scotland

North Scotland-based farmer John Scott is following the advice of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon while planning for the end of lockdown.

With Covid-19 restrictions now easing and lambing and calving slowing down we might be in with a chance of a little normality returning to our lives over the next few months.
To be fair there have been some advantages to movement restrictions. Our fuel bill has dropped significantly with less opportunity to move around and industry meetings held in Edinburgh which would usually mean a eight hour round trip have been restricted to a two minute tidy up whilst connecting to Zoom.
It’s been tough though, in the last 14 months we have eaten out three times, haven’t had a night away from the farm at all and have had little or no face to face contact with friends and relatives that we would have normally seen on a weekly basis.
It’s had an impact on the way we behave, I would say I have become even less tolerant and believe me this is an area where I didn’t have spare capacity, I’m also more reliant on my mobile phone, which I certainly don’t view as a positive.
Anyway as Auntie Nicola (Nicola Sturgeon our First Minister and SNP leader) says we need to hang in there, we are nearly there now, and will get through this!
On reflection it’s very like lambing and calving which we have navigated reasonably well for another season, it’s not been vintage but we seem to have decent lamb and calf numbers on the deck and will get the full picture once tailing has been completed soon.
As with every year we will review what worked and what didn’t, our main discussion points will undoubtedly be staff and ewe numbers which go hand in hand. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find the right type of people to work with sheep and maybe the simple option is to pull numbers back a little.
I think there are various factors that influence this, our location in the north of Scotland maybe doesn’t help, we operate at a fairly brisk pace which some find difficult and we do expect fairly high standards which again can be daunting.
Speaking to others in different industries it seems that finding employees with the right attitude and work ethic is becoming increasingly difficult, this is possibly a reflection on today’s society and I certainly don’t think the current pandemic helps.

“Speaking to others in different industries it seems that finding employees with the right attitude and work ethic is becoming increasingly difficult . . .” 

Anyhow it’s back to the drawing board and whilst we will cast the net to see who might be out there, top of our list will be finding people who will fit in with our core team and who are willing to embrace our systems and style of farming.
While doing this, Fiona and I are questioning if we can do more to become better managers of people, it’s something we have certainly become better at over the years but we are by no means there yet.
We have both done rural leadership programmes in the past and I did a Nuffield travelling scholarship many years ago but we don’t invest time in regular continuing professional development other than Trevor Cook’s visits which are of course on hold. With this in mind, we will have a look at what’s out there that might be of use to us but please, if anyone has any thoughts get in touch.
Downscaling sheep in a big way would of course reduce the need to manage as many people but it would also have a negative impact on output especially with current prices, 2020 born hoggets peaked at £6.80 per kg recently which is a record high for the time of year and the outlook for this season is good.
My gut feeling is that we will pull numbers back a little, culling hard whilst refining type and exploring ways in which we can add value. Adding value might be a challenge but there are various things we could do including taking more ewe lambs through to sell as gimmers (two-tooths), breeding more rams for our sale and even retailing our own branded lamb, possibly through a farm-based retail outlet.
There is lots to think about and consider but with the sun shining at last and the summer hopefully coming we will get the blank bit of paper out and create a plan.