Hugh farms south of Aberdeen, near Stonehaven, and runs a mixed unit in a family partnership with his mother, sister and son.

The farm has historically been a mainly livestock unit, and traditionally finished store cattle, but has now moved towards rearing dairy beef calves as well as continuing to finish sheep. It also now has a significant area of arable land, growing wheat, winter barley and spring barley for malting, as well as oilseed rape.

Renewable energy is also a focus for the business, which invested in four wind turbines, generating 5.2MW, about eleven years ago.

“We need to be ahead of the curve to stay in the competitive game of farming. That means we need to find and embrace good practice and new ideas through necessity.”