The farm sits at 100m and hill rising to 400m above sea level, with average annual rainfall of 1000mm.
Andrew manages a herd of 300 spring block calving pedigree Luings. These are bred pure or crossed with Aberdeen Angus and Simmental, producing replacements, breeding heifers and stores.
There is also a flock of 1400 ewes made up of Scottish Blackface. These are also bred pure or crossed with Bluefaced Leicester for replacements, breeding sales, crossing with Texel and producing fat lambs.
Why Trees?
Burnfoot already had over 150 acres of woodland - including riparian woodland by the river, and shelter belts for the animals.
However, this was added to, via new woodland creation of some 50 Hectares - planted in two blocks.
The scheme was grant funded with the Sheep and trees Forestry Grant Scheme option. This enables applications for both woodland creation and forest infrastructure.
The scheme has provided multiple benefits to the farm including:
- practical access to stock for feeding and monitoring
- easier gathering of the herd
- good access to existing woodland for felling and thinning, enabling a future income stream
