History
Iain and Sheena Graham bought Balgay, near Inchture, on the Carse of Gowrie, in the summer of 2009. Having farmed in the west for many years, they thought a farm in the east would be drier and more productive. However, with three wet years back-to-back the existing drainage and compaction problems on the farm became abundantly clear. In addition, there was a need for renovation on the farm house, the sheds, the handling facilties and just about every area of the farm. To date, there has been a decade of significant capital investment in farm assets, including:
Drainage
Drainage has been a major project and with the help of Meiklem Drainage, 220 acres of arable land has been drained. Pows (large ditches) and culverts have been cleared and annual jetting is in place.
The results today are speaking for themselves. One particularly challenging field, which rose by a mere 15cm across a mile span, has been transformed into a highly productive, high yielder, producing superb grass and crops year on year.
The Cattle Sheds - wintering
New stock pens, as well as specialised bullpens, were built and efficiency was vastly improved by developing centralised feeding troughs for wintering stock.
Farmhouse
Sheena, Iain’s wife, worked with James Denholm Architects to renovate the farmhouse from top to bottom and it is now a beautiful family home, lived in farm manager, Iain Wilkinson and his wife, Jen.
Fencing
The entire farm has an ongoing stock fencing project to allow for crop rotation into grassland. In addition, Farm Manager, Iain Wilkinson is achieving great results with paddock grazing.
New Grain store
Working with Iain Hope, a new 5000 tonne capacity Grain Store was built in 2014. As of 2018, a weigh-bridge was introduced to gain more visibility of yields and also allow for contract drying.
Soil Structure and crop rotation
Much research has gone into the crop rotation, finding natural ways to replenish the minerals in the soil in the drive towards zero input farming. Iain Graham and Iain Wilkinson work closely with soil and seed specialists and are constantly trying new crops to continually improve soil structure.
