Barony Farm

The 228 hectare (563 acres) commercial farm and estate has four clear objectives:

• To provide a first class facility for practical skills training, enabling students to develop their competence and prepare for industrial assessments. The Barony farm is where students apply the principles learnt in the classroom.
• To provide information on the financial and physical results of each enterprise and the farm business as a whole.
• To underpin the credibility of staff, the college and the students who graduate from courses, so that the industries the college serves can have confidence in the curriculum.
• To provide a base for trials and the evaluation of new techniques, encouraging exploration by students.

This guide provides a wealth of basic data and information about the estate in order to encourage enquiring minds to search library and computer based information to further their knowledge.

Staff

Farm Manager
Assistant Farm Manager / Farm Instructor
Herd Manager
3 Part time staff

College Farm Policy

All major enterprises on the College farms are subject to commercial pressure and the range of commercial activities reflect those found in South West Scotland.

From time to time, the range of farm and estate activities are reviewed and modified as necessary to meet the changing skill requirements for those seeking employment in land-based industries.

Barony College Estate

The college estate consists of three farms, Barony, Carse of Ae and Stanemuir. Stanemuir is farmed on a limited partnership basis and brings the total area farmed to 228 ha (563 acres).

Lying in the Ae Valley next to the River Ae, much of the land is level deriving from flood plains. Consequently, many of the fields are gravel based and mostly free draining. Depressions occur on parts of the farms and are filled with peat beds which are difficult to drain satisfactorily.

With an average annual rainfall of 1140mm (45 inches), it is sometimes difficult to make top quality grass silage.  Therefore, more reliance is put on wholecrop, Alkalage and we are now trying maize although we realise it is very marginal here at Barony.

The Barony is the base for the expanding number of Pedigree Holstein Friesian cows, which increased from 150 to 300 on the completion of our new Dairy Technology Centre development in June 2006.  This is a £1.3 million spend on the construction of a high animal dairy welfare unit on a green field site incorporating the latest technologies including a voluntary milking system.

Stanemuir farm is the main site for our small Aberdeen Angus suckler herd (25 head) as well as half the 300 Greyface / Texel X ewe flock.  Since the end of Arable Aid Payments and CAP reform we plough half the land at Stanemuir for our wholecrop / Alkalage requirements and have a field planted in maize.

The Carse of Ae farm was purchased in 1984 and has until recently been our main barley growing site.  This year we have 10ha of winter wheat sown with the remainder in grass where the other half of our sheep flock and most of the dairy replacement cattle can be found.

Carse of Ae has also been the home since 1988 of the college herd of Red Deer. This is a commercial scale red deer unit producing breeding animals and venison for sale.

A commercial fish farm is also based at Carse of Ae and is used to rear mainly rainbow trout for sale as fingerlings or trout for the table and restocking.