Life can be so hectic, and the farm is always busy, it’s hard to find some quiet time and do some simple fun things at times. Georgie loves nothing more than spending some one-on-one time with me, so the only way that tends to happen is for us to take off somewhere for a few days. Last year, we went to Lapland to meet Santa, which was an amazing trip; this year we headed to Scotland.
I had been to Glasgow once when I attended the Semex conference a few years back where Pete was speaking, but we never got the opportunity to explore.
Georgie and I headed to Edinburgh for three days to relax and spend some quality time together whilst also catching up with good friends. Blythbridge Farm was our base for the few days and as we met Izzy Laird on arrival, the dry weather was a respite from home, although a little cooler.
Our first port of call was a town called Biggar, which is close to two of Scotland’s great rivers, the Clyde flowing to the west and the Tweed flowing to the east.
Stone and bronze age artifacts have been found in the area and there is a magnificent museum in the heart of the town.
We decided after lunch we would head out and have a look at the museum, the details and the stories they had were amazing, everything from the different types of rocks in the area to items belonging to a local family of rank and influence back in the day called the Flemings who resided in Boghall Castle — there was an excellent detailed model of the castle, a four poster bed and details about the family. There was also a little village with all the different types of shops, chemists, boot makers, and printers all laid out and you could explore away to your heart’s content.
We headed back to the farm for the afternoon and got a full tour from Izzy. As we walked into a shed of youngstock, Izzy was in the middle of telling which heifer was Reagie, the heifer Georgie showed at the All Breeds for Lairds as champion Jersey, but Georgie had spotted her down the back corner and with one call of her name, she came bounding down the pen to say hello and lift her head so Georgie could scratch under her chin — amazing how animals and handlers bond and the pair hadn’t forgotten each other.
The Lairds run a super dairy farm at Blythbridge and have strived to breed phenomenal cows with great production.
Understanding the importance of quality of life combined with cow comfort, the farm has seen radical change over the last number of years with the 550 cows now housed in one barn with cows milked via 10 Lely A5 robotic milking machines, a big change from when the herd was previously three times a day in a 36-point rotary.
Cubicles are bedded on recycled manure solids allowing the farm to become more sustainable as truckloads of sawdust are no longer required. The remaining liquid slurry certainly does grow more grass in Colin’s opinion and to further the farm’s green credentials, all heat is captured from the milk cooling process to heat the family homes and it is a true family operation, Colin’s parents, Alister and Kathleen, work daily on the farm and in between school runs, Izzy is busy looking after the youngstock and the kids are out busy getting stuck in as well.
The predominantly Holstein herd certainly enjoys the combined comfort and herd health with average production now at over 12,000 ltrs per cow, up from 10,700 before the new facilities were constructed. The Blythbridge cows don’t just perform in the dairy shed, the have won pretty much everything there is to win across UK show rings
The next day we ventured into a slightly bigger town called Peebles, which sits on the river Tweed, with the most stunning scenery.
There are some lovely shops and hotels and lots of little hideaways for lunch.
Georgie was delighted at being able to take her time roaming the shops, something I must admit is not my favourite thing to do, but she was in her element going through every corner of every shop and was quite happy with her haul of purchases.
Before we left, we stumbled across the most amazing chocolate shop, the array of desserts and sweets was staggering and, of course, we felt it would be very rude for us not to sample the hot chocolate before we left. I can tell you we were not disappointed.
Back on the farm for the evening we settled in to watch the Royal Canadian Winter Fair which Colin had on livestream on the TV.
The couple’s young daughter Chloe has the same passion for youngstock as Georgie; indeed, at five years of age, it was Chloe who halter trained Reagie and also showed her at UK Dairy Expo and The Royal Highland this year, the young pair became besties so quick and were like sisters after two days, with Georgie even reading the bedtime stories.
It truly is the most wonderful thing about cows and showing, kids with a common interest making great friends and they are not the only ones as adults do the same and I truly enjoyed the chats and laughs with Izzy over the few days.
We could have spent days walking around the Laird’s farm, fantastic cows and even better heifers but home always beckons so a quick stroll down the yard to say goodbye to Alister, Kathleen and Colin, not forgetting Reagie, before Izzy and the kids dropped us into Edinburgh. We took a brief tour of the Royal Mile and as we grabbed a bite of lunch, Georgie had found the Edinburgh Lego store on google and the hunt was on as we toured down side streets in search of Georgie’s favourite store before a dash to the airport and homeward bound.
As I buckled up on my plane seat, I was sure I’d have to return to Scotland with Pete. It has wonderful scenery, the most friendly people one could meet and, of course, super cows.
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