Local Farmers Invited to First Meeting of Angus Monitor Farm

The Stodart family are hoping to welcome many local farmers to the first meeting of the Angus Monitor Farm on Monday 6 March.

The meeting will be held at Mill of Inverarity Farm, Forfar, Angus, DD8 2JY, from 10.30am to 3pm, with lunch will provided on farm. The event is free and all are welcome to attend. 

The family business was recently selected as a host for the new three year Monitor Farm Scotland programme funded by the Scottish Government. This joint initiative between Quality Meat Scotland and AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds aims to improve the profitability, productivity and sustainability of Scottish farming businesses.

Robert and Alison Stodart farm the 358 hectare mixed unit with their two sons Rory and Tom. Mill of Inverarity will be the focal point for the community group with local farmers able to feed in their ideas to help improve productivity and efficiency. Topics covered during the programme will be selected by the group and cover both local and industry wide issues, for example genetics, disease management and succession.

The business enterprises at Mill of Inverarity are wide ranging with 200 suckler cows, 440 breeding ewes, 300 bought in store lambs and finishing cattle.  They also have a 200 hectare arable enterprise growing winter wheat, winter barley, winter oilseed rape and spring barley. The challenges for the business are the same as for many in the area and the Stodarts are confident that the benefits of the project will be far reaching.

Rob Stodart says: “We were really keen to get involved in the Monitor Farm programme so we can make genuine changes to our business to make it more sustainable long term.  We also think it will be great for the local community and the farmers who contribute to the projects will also benefit from the ideas and innovation share which they can take back to their own farms.”

The event on 6 March will begin with a tour of the three main enterprises in the business; beef, sheep and arable, with the family describing the systems currently in place. After lunch representatives from QMS and AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds will give an overview of the Monitor Farm programme and former monitor farmer Duncan McEwen, from Arnprior, will share his experiences with the group.

The event is free to attend but to assist with catering attendees should book a place by contacting Stacey Hamilton by phone (01569 762305) or email (frbsstonehaven@sac.co.uk).

For more information about the monitor farm programme visit cereals.ahdb.org.uk or www.qmscotland.co.uk.