If you read the farming press you will have seen that the Ralston family (trading as Thomas Ralston and Sons) have taken the title of AgriScot Scottish Dairy Farm of the Year - a prestigious award which is sponsored by World Wide Sires. Father Willie, with wife Catherine and sons Andrew and Murray, are all involved in this family business which concentrates on milking 200 Ayrshires. In fact this is the first time that an Ayrshire herd has achieved the Number 1 position in this influential award.

This award is designed to highlight excellence in the dairy industry and the ultimate winner will have had to satisfy a raft of criteria - the list includes calving age, yield, somatic cell count and calving index. Disease is also factored into the list and, of course, the judge will always be looking for signs that the herd is a ‘happy and contented' one!

Like many progressive dairy farmers in Scotland the Ralston family make sure that they maximise the value of their grass crops. One of the key factors with this policy is to always sow top quality grass seed mixtures because these are, quite literally, the foundations of future success. The Ralston family specify one of the most famous brands in Scotland - Sinclair McGill - which is supplied by L S Smellie and Sons. They use Turbo (a medium term ley formulated especially for grazing) and Prosper (which is a dual purpose, medium term ley). They also rely on the performance potential of Castlehill - as do countless other farmers in Scotland and elsewhere. In fact this dual purpose mixture is probably one of the best selling long term mixtures in the UK.

Sinclair McGill exhibited at AgriScot and judging by the number of new catalogues which were handed out during the event there is no doubt that a significant number of the 9000+ visitors found time to come along and catch up on the latest technical information we had available!

If you would like to read the judge's comments about this particular award then have a good look on the AgriScot website ( www.agriscot.co.uk/farm.html ).

December 2011