Farming
Foreland Esate is a traditional mixed farm. We have a suckler herd of about 60 breeding cows; a flock of about 400 breeding ewes and rotationally grow grass for silage and barley for whisky (Bruichladdich Distillery).
The cows live outside in the summer; grazing both on in-bye fields and out on the rougher hill ground. They come into the shed for the winter where they are bedded on our barley straw. Calving is in the spring just before mum with calf-at-foot go back outside. After the summer grazing season, the calves are brought into the shed for one winter to reach the age of about a year before going to the spring sales to be finished on the mainland.
The sheep live out all year round. They lamb in the spring on their own in the in-bye fields. The lambs are fully grown and ready for market by about Christmas time. The ewes will graze up on the hill ground outside of lambing time, finding sheltered places out of the wind.
The grazing of the upland areas of the farm by both cattle and sheep greatly improve the biodiversity of the hills and their dung is food to many species.
In early summer, grass that was grown for silage is cut; allowed to wither and then rowed up ready for the silage maker. This machine chops the grass into short lengths and blows it into trailers. It is then taken to the silage pit where it is preserved for the following winter.
We try to feed the cows primarily on home produced silage. We also give them some draff recevied from the island’s distilleries.
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We have adopted a zero tillage approach at Foreland Estate. Also known as Regenerative Farming. The focus is on improving the soils by allowing organic organisms to flourish in our top soils by not disturbing them through ploughing and other destructive tillage.
The soil is full of life – microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria and other fauna such as protozoa, annelids, arthropods and nematodes. They break down old plant matter and make nutrients available to growing plants. But they need feeding themselves and much of their food comes from plant root exudates. Atmospheric carbon finds its way into the bodies of micro organisms in the soil through photosynthesis!
It is therefore important to always have some plants growing in the soil. We try our best to grow winter cover crops (although it’s hard so far north) and over-wintered stubbles have lots of volunteer seeds that chit and grow after harvest on their own.
In the spring we kill off the cover crop and drill directly into the soil using a specific type of direct drill. We chose to use a John Deere 750A.
Because of our Northerly latitude, drilling is usually quite late in the spring compared to the mainland and further south. We need to wait for the ground to be dry enough before we can get on the land. Especially important with regenerative farming… we want to avoid damaging the soil.
We also need to wait for the over-wintering geese (Greenland barnacle and white fronted) to leave… otherwise they will enjoy the freshly planted seed for breakfast.
Due to the late drilling, harvest is also later. The barley usually ripens in September but the summer is drawing to a close by then so finding suitable dry days for harvesting is challenging. But with the help of the gulf stream, the climate on Islay is perfect for malting barley and the end result is always worth the hard work. And ultimately makes a great dram!
