Farmers were able to see agri-tech in action during a farm walk on the Bowhill Estate, near Selkirk. Organised by the UK Agri-Tech Centre, more than 40 people attended the event on July 29 at the 6,500 hectare estate in the Scottish Borders, which is one of our satellite farms.
With companies such as Ritchie showcasing its beef and lamb monitoring technology, Smaxtec talking about its bolus and health monitoring options, Soil Essentials demonstrating its Skai Sprayer allowing it to directly target weeds within the pasture leys and Smartbell demonstrating its health monitoring tags in cattle used for the early detection of disease, farmers were able to see agri-tech working within a farm setting.
We had the pleasure of welcoming newly voted in chair of The Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs (SAYFC), Jillian Kennedy, who gave an insight into the work the Young Farmers group are doing to raise awareness nationwide on the positive future of Scottish Farming using the latest innovations.
The event also saw a specially branded JCB Fastrac which had the My Name’5 Doddie livery on it. This was to raise awareness of the charity set up in memory of Scottish rugby legend Doddie Weir who passed away of motor neurone disease.
Rob Morrison, the UK Agri-Tech Centre Head of Farms, said: “This event was about connecting farmers with agri-tech and showing what is coming down the line. Crucially, it was the smaller conversations that took place which are of real value and allow farmers to shape the sort of agri-tech they want to see and which will make a real difference.”
Bruce McConachie, Head of Industry Development for Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), also spoke at the event and emphasised the role agri-tech has to play in a constantly evolving agricultural sector.
Bruce said: “It is about understanding that agriculture has a key role to play, as long as we are relaying it in a consistent format. That is one of the key challenges in all of this.”
For Bowhill farm manager Sion Williams, emerging technology was changing the way they farmed an estate which encompassed huge sheep flocks, a suckler herd, a deer farming enterprise and a biogas unit.
He said working with the UK Agri-Tech Centre was helping bridge the wider challenge of getting key performance data from agri-tech trials ‘into the hands of farmers’ so it could make a tangible difference at farm level.
If you want to learn more about Bowhill farm or are interested in our future farm walk events, please get in touch via [email protected]
