Impressed by farming in the Orkney Islands

A little over five years ago I had a group of farmers from the Orkney Islands come and visit my farm.

They were a great group and I became good friends with some of them. At the time, they encouraged me to come and visit the Orkneys and I promised that I would; some day. Five years later I have kept my promise.

I decided that the best way to do it was to take my car and drive up through Scotland and visit some friends along the way. Looking at a map I didn’t quite grasp how far away it was and how much driving was involved.

But I made it to the north of Scotland safely.

Travelling over on the ferry to the Orkneys, there was thick fog and I couldn’t really get a good look at the islands. But once the fog lifted and we saw around, it was a bit of a shock – on the map, it looked like a group of small islands, but I was surprised how large the main island actually is.

Outing

We had arranged to be there for The Orkney Agricultural Discussion Society summer outing. They had very kindly invited us to join them. The outing consisted of three farm walks and a visit to a historic display.

It was really well organised and I got a good feel for the area, and how it compared to Fermanagh.

Different

They were three very different farms and several major things stood out for me.

The first was the lack of dairy farms. There are only about 10 dairy farms left on the islands. Most have converted to sucklers and sheep. This seems to be more profitable than dairying.

The next big thing was the size of the farms. All seem to be getting bigger and buying up neighbouring farms. Land is selling between £3,000 and £5,000/acre.

Finally, most farms are able to grow enough cereals to feed their livestock and have enough straw for bedding – I suppose they have to try and be self-sufficient as much as possible. As well as those stand-out issues, there are also some really big positives to farming in the Orkneys.

In particular, there is no TB, no badgers, no foxes and no deer.

Drawbacks

But in a few side conversations, I thought I would try to really get a grip of this island farming. It can’t be all good – there must be some drawbacks.

Well there are. The majority of inputs have to be brought onto the island and the majority of the outputs have to be taken off.

To take cattle or sheep to the meat factory is a short ferry and long drive or a long ferry and a short drive. Either way it takes many hours and is very expensive. Even beef for own consumption has to go on this journey and then back to the islands.

There were lots of similar stories like this. One that stood out was to do with building sheds. The steel has to be brought up from mainland Scotland and cut and welded into the frame.

Then it is sent back to be galvanised, before returning to the Orkneys. It costs £1,000 per trip for an articulated lorry. It certainly adds to the expense.

Another issue was calling for a vet. If you need a vet urgently in one of the outer islands you will only get them in daylight hours and if they think they won’t make it back before dark, then they won’t travel.

So the farmers in the Orkneys definitely have their own set of problems and difficulties.

Having said that, it’s a wonderful place to visit. There were around 30 farmers on the visits and I didn’t hear one of them complaining about anything to do with farming.

Maybe we can all learn something from that and be more content with what we have at home in NI.