THE Scott Brothers have always been in agriculture, with a strong passion to continue the family’s farm and sustain a viable business.

Charlie, Michael and Andrew began with their roots in the arable sector, however, they soon realised that to strengthen the business, they needed to diversify. This led to their latest venture in poultry.

Growing up on the family farm in East Lothian, the brothers started young with a hands-on role helping their father on the arable unit, supplying wheat, barley and oilseed rape. Finding their own path, the eldest and youngest – Charlie and Michael – studied Agriculture at Edinburgh SAC where they further developed their skills and knowledge within the industry. Andrew, on the other hand, studied forest management at Inverness.

On his return, Charlie decided to make the first move into poultry in 2016. He began by building the first 16,000 bird free range unit, fitted with Vencomatic UK equipment and due to its great success, later doubled the size to 32,000 birds the following flock.

Michael says: “As a farming business, we needed to diversify, and strengthen the business without relying on government subsidies.

“Our farm is 150 hectares and to run this as just an arable enterprise doesn’t stack up financially without looking for contract farming where profit margins have been squeezed for a number of years. This was not an option for our family.

“The first shed we built was a massive challenge and with little experience, there were many learning curves along the way.”

With the first two sheds proving to be rewarding, the middle brother, Andrew, is now involved in the build of a new poultry shed.

Charlie says: “We focus on keeping labour to a minimum at all times. Each of us packs eggs and runs the sheds day to day. All of our eggs are sold to the Lakes Free Range Egg Co and our feed is bought from Noble Foods.”

With reduced labour and reliability a factor, they installed the Veranda Aviary and Veranda Gallery Single to reflect this.

In addition, to their nest system, they further installed efficient egg-packing equipment. The Scott brothers found the best solutions for them was with Prinzen. They chose the PSCPC 30, PR70 and Prinzen Palletiser (NEW for 2021) for the reliability and support.

Looking towards the future, the brothers are responding to the NFU’s 2040 Net Zero target.

Michael says: “As a family, we would like to see ourselves become more self-sufficient. We are looking to invest further into renewable energy, in an attempt to become more carbon neutral and lower our electric consumption from the national grid.”

Consequently, the brothers have committed to a 200kW roof-mounted solar install, with Venco Energy, and are excited for the completion of their new build.