Modern farming techniques | Environment | Agronomy

Cropping

The cropping focuses on Winter Wheat with break crops of Oil Seed Rape, Beans and some Vining Peas.

Rotations used are kept simple, but are always managed and developed so that whilst delivering high returns they are also sustainable long term.

With cereals grown under Scottish Quality Crops assurance scheme and Peas grown for Scottish Border Produce.

The Oil Seed Rape and either Winter or Spring Beans are both established in a simple one pass system, using our Simba SL cultivators.
We have been operating a non-inversion cultivation strategy for almost 15 years on some farms and the benefits are now being seen in the structure and behaviour of the soils. The non-inversion of the soil builds fertility and overall health. This is vital to our farming approach.
For the farms with Vining Peas we have to plough those specific fields; ideally before November and then pressed and drilled in the Spring. The vining pea crops have to be grown with atleast 6 years between each one.

Environment

We pride ourselves on making sure that farming agreements are put together in such a way as to ensure that environmental benefits are delivered, while at the same time minimising the impact on efficiency of operations.

Equally, we recognise the additional benefits for sport and conservation.

The Mountfair Farming approach considers the environmental and financial benefits for environmental schemes and also the practical implications, constraints and opportunity costs.

This ensures that a sustainable and workable agreement is secured, providing mutual benefits for the environment and the landowner alike without disrupting the efficient farming of the farm.

Whilst we strive to make the farming business a profitable and sustained as possible we are also focused on ensuring this is done with an environmental aspect.

We can advise and help implement the various different schemes:

Entry level and Higher level stewardship schemes
Countryside stewardship
Helping to encourage grey partridge – something we have done successfully on a number of estates
Managing hedgerows and field margins

Members of Leaf – Lining Environment And Farming

We can help develop the environmental aspects of your land as well as growing the crops. Whether ELS or HLS schemes, game cover or other sporting necessaries we can help advise and implement.