Farming Smarter: How Data Drives Success at Smiddyburn Farms

Key Factors 

• Small changes for big results 

• Pioneering collaborative benchmarking 

• Maximum efficiency to meet modern pressures 

Murray Forsyth is Managing Partner of Smiddyburn Farms near the Grampian Hills in Aberdeenshire – comprised of 3 farms covering 1000 acres, finishing 500 beef cattle per year. Their arable rotation comprises a stable 5-year rotation running winter barley – oilseed rape – winter wheat – spring barley. 

Independent, local agronomy is a new addition to help focus on crop nutrition and health, underpinning sustainable and profitable production.  

Murray is also the Chair of Aberdeen Grain. A local co-operative grain storage business with 130 members. 

Smiddyburn Farms have won YAGRO’s Best in Field Award 2024 for Best Attention to Detail, awarded for flawless capture and accuracy of farm records.  

They were selected as winner by Gabby Hart, Customer Support Executive at YAGRO, who visited Aberdeenshire to learn more about their operation and use of data analysis.

This conversation is also available as a podcast: Listen Here.

You’ve won 2024 Best in Field Award for Attention to Detail – which is reflected in your crop production, with both 2024’s spring barley and oilseed rape grown beneath market median (£56t and £192/t respectively.) How important are these two crops to your rotation?

It’s good to have some high value crops in your rotation to maximise your margins.  

OSR is generally in the decline in the UK, but up here in the North East we don’t have the same types of pressure as Southern farmers. Meaning we can still rely on high yielding OSR, which is key to a good gross margin.  

For spring barley, there’s a huge demand in this area with distilleries, and it’s one of the simpler crops for us to grow on this land because of the late springs.  

Do you mainly grow barley for malting? 

We aim for malting rather than feed for spring barley, especially when there’s up to £60/t premiums.  

The winter barley grows mainly as an entry for the OSR because of the timings. It’s critical to get the OSR drilled before the end of August. Winter barley isn’t the best grossing crop, but this can go as feed for the cattle, so that suits the bigger picture.  

It’s also about spreading out the labour requirements via our rotation. We extend our harvest cycle by doing half our drilling straight after harvest, with the other half saved for spring cropping.  

Do you have a favourite piece of kit helping the arable side? 

I’m an engineer, so I love all machinery. I tend to drive the combine myself and do enjoy that.  

Though I’d say it’s hard to beat ploughing for satisfaction, but I have competition from the rest of the team for who gets that job! 

We plough a lot in this area for various reasons, including climate. Most farmers around here plough followed by a combination drill. Due to the environment and the weather here minimum tillage doesn’t seem to work as well.  

You’ve been using your Analytics Platform for a while now. Your Best in Field Award is for perfect management of data collection across your farm. How does it feel to win?  

It was certainly a nice surprise and nice to be recognised, thank you. 

I do put a lot of time and attention into making sure my records and data are as accurate as possible, which isn’t always simple if it’s coming from various sources.  

It’s been well noticed. Why do you carry this attentive approach to farming across to your data handling, too?  

It comes from being an engineer. I started my career at Rolls Royce, where attention to detail, accuracy and quality are all key.  

More fundamentally it’s obvious: If you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it.  

What you develop a thirst for is understanding more details before you make decisions, so your decisions can be data-driven. Then you’re able to reflect on what you’ve done and accurately gage if you’ve made a difference.  

Are there any stand-out decisions you’ve made using data? 

It’s difficult to select a ‘stand-out decision’ because I feel the real value is actually in the smaller, incremental decisions. 

One of the things we tried this year was the new fungicide Miravis Plus, growing some wheat with this product and some without. By comparing the yields, you could see a clear difference.  

Other decisions include cropping plans. Spring barley is a popular crop in this area, but it can turn out poorly if it doesn’t hit quality. Looking back over five years' worth of data, winter wheat and OSR are our prime performers – so we’re informed enough to focus on those crops.  

You mention the last 5 years... Before then, and before your Analytics Platform, what was it like operating with less access to data analysis? 

I’d say today the incremental changes are where the difference is. There’s been an ever-increasing drive for efficiency over the years as costs have risen but commodity prices haven’t. So, there’s enormous focus on costs of production. 

Having available data gives you an in-depth understanding of your costs and individual elements, so you simply have a better handle of what your decisions are costing.  

It's like comparing a pilot with modern displays to flying in the past ‘by the seat of your pants.’  

You must keep improving all the time. Attention to detail is important, especially as subsidies have been weaned off. Understanding your costs as the main element you can control in our commoditised market is incredibly important.  

We work together a lot Murray – You here in Aberdeen and me down in Cambridge at YAGRO HQ. I’ve been impressed with your meticulous understanding of your operation. Have you always farmed with this attention to detail? 

I took over managing the farm in the last 13 years. Prior to that my father was running the operation and he did use digital tools to help the business, but perhaps he didn’t exploit their benefits to the maximum. I think my engineering background drove me down the route to using the programmes available and being meticulous with them.  

Once you’ve spent time inputting data and you begin using it later to make decisions, and look back reflectively at your performance, it gives you the desire to keep using data more and more.  

I know you track your inputs and costs throughout the season, but you also go back through your stock levels at the end of the year to check your records. This method helps you remain accurate? 

You must have a simple process for capturing information. Other people in the business make records and I pull them all together.  

Reconciling the data with your stock levels at the end is simply a way to check we’re all correct. We’ve built this process to maintain accuracy.  

You once said your Analytics Platform is similar to looking at your car dashboard to gauge what speed you’re moving. Do you still feel like this? 

Certainly. Data at your fingertips means you can understand where you’re going.  

It’s important as time goes on and the years differ to have the ability to reflect on previous years and adjust your approach to the season.  

That’s why we’re setting up our Aberdeen Grain Benchmarking Group with YAGRO which will tell us exactly how fast we’re moving.  

Tell us more about this Aberdeen Grain Benchmarking Group... 

Aberdeen Grain is a cooperative grain storage and processing facility. It was set up to avoid farmers having to build their own facilities, meaning we can benefit from economies of scale and coming together.  

One of the best ways to cooperate is to share data with the aim of elevating the farm members within the group.  

Sharing data between farms would be incredibly powerful. We’ve been talking about it at Aberdeen Grain for 10 years, but it never happened due to a lack of tools for capturing and sharing the data. So, I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can do with YAGRO – we have our first meeting next week.  

Again, it’s all about the small incremental changes. Small changes repeated across a group can make big, positive differences.  

We certainly look forward to working with you on that project! Is there anything else you’d like to mention today? 

Thanks for the award and making the effort to visit the farm. We’ve worked together for a number of years on the data side, and I enjoy working with YAGRO. It’s a great platform and will be very powerful moving forwards, so I’m glad to contribute.  

With thanks to Murray for his time speaking with us. We look forward to developing the Aberdeen Grain Benchmarking Group and wish them every success for the upcoming season.  

Congratulations again to the whole team at Smiddyburn Farms in Aberdeenshire for winning Best in Field 2024 Best Attention to Detail.