Imogen Flack, Farm and Estate Student 2024-25

It’s been quite a year at Balcaskie…

For any of the farm team, it’s pretty apparent that I’m not originally from a farming background, and that greener than the herbal leys grown here is an understatement. However, despite this I have really enjoyed my time at Balcaskie.

Having had mostly experience on dairy farms before, I was quite nervous on my drive up to Scotland in June, as I knew that I would be completing a lot of new tasks and working far outside my comfort zone, especially having limited to no experience with beef and sheep. A big component of the livestock system was mob grazing; partitioning up large fields into smaller paddocks and moving cattle daily ensured that the cows trampled in the remaining grass which in turn helped the soil microbes rebuild structure and organic matter. Moving the cattle was a large part of my role, and although the novelty of battling with tangled electrical reels, burst off water connections and electrical faults eventually wore off – I’ll miss seeing my groups of cows. My favourite group was the Maiden Heifers, an all-girl group which were normally extremely well behaved. However, on the day that I was to move them across a wheat field, it was also time for me to introduce four bulls to the group for the first time. Safe to say that four new boys on the block was a bit much for the girls and everyone got a bit excited, turning our two minute move into a forty minute one, and temporarily shunting the group to bottom of my list.

 

Calving and lambing was a very exciting time for me on the estate as not only did I gain more calving experience, but I lambed my first sheep! Although I’ve assisted with calving before, calving completely independently was still quite a daunting feat. Despite being warned about the wet Scottish weather, we were incredibly lucky during our time at Balcaskie, and towards the end of calving were able to trial cows calving outside. My first solo outside calving experience proved quite intense, with me probably straining more than the cow and making a lot more noise as we manoeuvred across the field attached by a set of calving ropes. I think we were both relieved when the calf was safely out!
The intensity continued into the job of tagging calves. Normally I would catch the calf and Cammy would swiftly fit them with ear tags, all while we attempted to keep the maternal cows at bay – which was normally me running about with a stick making strange barking noises. However, one particularly spirited calf, who was rather big and surprisingly strong, didn’t like being restrained and after a bit of him fighting, and me refusing to let go, we toppled back down, me landing face first in a pile of poo.
This wasn’t my only wrestling practice during placement, as during tupping time myself and Cammy would join up with Jack and Ewan every 17 days to change the colours on the tups raddles. Cornering the all the sheep against the fence we would each eye a tup and quickly wade through the rest to catch it. It was very entertaining watching each other be dragged or sometimes even carried off across the field, arms and legs wrapped fiercely around the tups’ middles.

Although, I’ve had triumphs during my time here, unfortunately, I have made probably just as many mistakes, if not more. There is a bit of a running joke on the farm that I am a walking disaster, and the ‘auld’ boys Dave and Andy ask me most days what I’ve bent or broken – and I normally have an answer. A few disasters spring to mind. My first big mistake was taking a corner too tightly when carting bales for the first time and managing to send five of my bales into the way of oncoming traffic and my face a deep shade of maroon – very embarrassing! Machinery mistakes continued to be a running theme for me when I nervously agreed to drive the forty paying guests of the monthly Bowhouse ‘Grass to Grill’ tours on the seater trailer. Despite Cammy saving me from wiping out a fence strainer, I was soon left to my own dangerous devices and proceeded to scrape the side of the trailer on the silage pit – good job the guests where no longer on board! My last big blunder was regrettably only a week before I finished, where although having successfully completed the job of topping up the pig feed hoppers every week on my placement, I managed to create a small crater in the sliding doors of the grain shed when putting the forklift away.

Overall, Balcaskie has been a fantastic place to work this last year, and it has been wonderful to have been encouraged to get involved with different parts of the estate – whether it be deer stalking with Jeremy, butchering with Euan and Romain, or building bridges with Jim and Poul. I’m very grateful for all the help I’ve been given over this year, and although my mistakes haven’t been encouraged, Sam has kindly stated more times than I care to mention that “you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs”.
So, a massive thank you to the patient team at Balcaskie Estate for putting up with me for a whole year and giving me the chance to learn. But most of all a huge thank you to Sam for still managing to smile every time I did in fact break an egg.