Climate-positive farming is key to Scotland’s climate change adaptation and mitigation.
In this blog, Prof Lorna Dawson, Knowledge Broker for Environment, reflects on her visit to the Climate-Positive Farming Initiative at the James Hutton Institute's Glensaugh Farm.
Taking part in the Climate Action Summit Conference at Our Dynamic Earth, 1 and 2 October 2024, I am reminded of the SEFARI Gateway visit by the Scotia Club to the Climate-Positive Farming Initiative at James Hutton Institute's Glensaugh Farm, as Ali Karley (James Hutton Institute) and Davy McCracken (SRUC) both presented brilliantly in the panel discussion, on how we can speed up sustainable land management with robust research such as at the Institute research farms.
Scotia is a group of people with experience of interdisciplinary approaches to food production and who seek a balanced judgement of the long-term effects of innovation on the conservation of the land. Scotia- 1972 was the first meeting of the Scotia club. The forum allows for frank and interdisciplinary exchanges between people from a range of different backgrounds. Members attending were from SRUC, James Hutton Institute, SAC Consulting and also experienced independent agricultural advisers.
The group were first welcomed to the Glensaugh farm offices to a coffee and scone, with freshly made jam from Castleton’s farm shop, where the local berries are grown, hand-picked and made into delicious and nutritious jam. We welcomed everyone and spoke about what SEFARI is and the aims of SEFARI Gateway, and shared some of the recent reports on Soils and Biodiversity, Animal Health and Food.
Farm Manager, Donald Barrie, then briefly discussed the whole Glensaugh farm enterprise, and this was followed by a very interesting tour of the farm. We walked over many of the soil types. Reflected by the varied underlying geology, with the best quality land (brown earths) housing the improved in-by land, and on the hill tops to the north is an area of dystrophic blanket peat. See the soil map below of different soil types across Glensaugh estate.
Image: Soil map of Glensaugh farm (Source: Crown Copyright and James Hutton Institute soil data).
Donald told us about the 50 hectares of green and rotational grass in the in-by land that acts as ‘the engine room of the farm’. Most of the farm is covered in moorland and blanket bog, with around 800 hectares of dry heath. Peatland restoration is also important for the estate to help in reducing GHG emissions and mitigating against climate change. Furthermore, they have 320 blackface ewes running on the hill, producing 1.2 lambs per ewe at the end of April. The farm has moved from a “high input-high output” system, which was the system at the farm when Donald took over as farm manager. On the low ground the sheep are hybrid ewes and now Donald has balanced the inputs and outputs, and the system runs in a sustainable manner. In addition, Donald has also worked on breeding the cattle and now has a pedigree herd of Luing cows.
In 1970 the Hill Farming Research Organisation pioneered deer farming at Glensaugh to utilise the ‘badlands’ with some areas fenced. Donald now runs 90 hinds, with “inputs low and outputs acceptable”. The challenge is marketing the offspring. The nearest slaughterhouse is at Pontefract which is at around the 8-hour limit for welfare transport of live animals.
Winter is a big issue on the farm, Donald said: “Silage/haylage of acceptable quality is one of the missions of my life”. He believes it’s best to “keep the diet grass based”. Animal welfare is paramount for Donald's husbandry. His cow's calf at 3 to 11 years of age then he said he stops calving the cows at 12 years of age. By then he knows them very well: we could see the strong bond between farmer and farmed animals.
We then walked through the glen where Donald showed us the newly planted Oak and Scots pine seedlings, in between patches of bracken and heather. All planted land is fenced to prevent wild deer browsing young trees. Donald has gradually removed Sitka spruce shelter woodlands and has been replacing them with oak and associated species.
Image: Donald describing new tree planting of oak on the farm. Source: Lorna Dawson.
Next, we were taken up the hill to an area of new oak seedlings in decomposable tubes, planted last year by Donald and his team, with a backdrop of the agroforestry plots established over 40 years ago. There is much data and research related to the ongoing work at Glensaugh. We then carried on up the hill to where the beef cattle were grazing.
Image: Donald showing us the beef hill herd of cattle. Source: Lorna Dawson.
Arriving back at the farm offices, after climbing to a considerable altitude to see the cattle grazing, we were presented with many aspects of the Climate-Positive farming initiative at Glensaugh by Professor Alison Hester. Alison presented on the many aspects of natural capital, biodiversity and land management, in particular with an emphasis on Climate-Positive farming.
Image: In the Glensaugh meeting room space with Alison Hester (Source: Lorna Dawson).,
The Climate Positive Farming Initiative at Glensaugh is in its a 5-year set-up phase. Climate-Positive farming is a transformational approach to farming that achieves net-zero or even negative carbon emissions, whilst also protecting and enhancing the natural assets of a farm and ensuring long-term financial sustainability of the farm business. Agriculture is highly exposed to climate change, and farming activities also contribute to climate change through release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In Scotland, agriculture and related land use generate about a quarter of all annual greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving the UK and Scottish net-zero commitments and the UK Climate Change Committee requires changes in land use as a matter of urgency. A key to success is to achieve this as an integral part of the farm’s combined operations, whilst continuing to produce food and other benefits for nature and society. Moving towards net-zero requires a transformative approach, with innovations in technology and in new ways of working. Robust testing and demonstrating results on the ground is also required to help farmers, policy makers, international organizations and donors to make climate-positive farming a priority.
Collaboration with neighbours is also important and Glensaugh have jointly restored an area of peatland with a neighbouring estate which will also help with natural flood management. Alison also gave other examples of the power of collaborative working across different sites. They are also building and exciting new demonstrator project, funded by the Scottish Government’s Just Transition Fund, called HydroGlen for wind and solar and green Hydrogen energy production. This will replace fossil fuel usage and provide all energy requirements for the farm and 7 individual cottages on the farm.
Alison was asked how can they get the biggest benefit while also producing food? She replied that “We need to look for transformative solutions that give multiple benefits – for farming, biodiversity and climate resilience into the future.”
Image: Infographic for climate-positive farming at Glensaugh (Source: Alison Hester and underlying map Crown Copyright).
Climate-Positive farming seeks “negative emissions” through transforming farm activities. This includes producing and using renewable energy to meet the energy needs of the farm and associated households, ‘carbon farming’ (removing CO2 from the air) through crop choice, expanding woodland, restoring habitats and soil, innovative and transformative management to minimise GHG emissions, protecting biodiversity, smart water management, selling direct from farm to table where possible and minimising supply chain related emissions.
We left Glensaugh with a spring in our step as all could see that it was being well cared for in a very environmentally suitable way, with a long-term vision for green energy, happy livestock and a healthy natural environment across all levels of the ecosystems at Glensaugh.
Prof. Lorna Dawson, SEFARI Gateway and James Hutton Institute.