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When travelling around Coll what do you think of its agriculture? As an agriculturalist I am frequently posed this question. There are many who proffer the opinion that in the old days farming was much better. They quote instances of the high number of dairy cows, the fields now awash in rushes that were once ploughed, the poorly maintained ditches. I have always wondered just how objective those assessments were. Having collected a fair amount of information from the archives of the Scottish Office I had a look at the trends of agriculture production on Coll over the last forty years.
A glance at this information may suggest the basis on which some of the aforementioned opinions were made. For instance the number of squealing pigs at the annual slaughtering or even, and quite likely, the numbers of people employed. The following table shows the numbers of each category present on farms in the years 1940, 1960 and 1981.
1940 1960 1981
Total Nos of Poultry 1004 523 102
Total Nos of Pigs 35 0 0
Total Nos of Working Horses 112 12 0
Total Nos of Regular Labour (both full-time and regular part-time) 35 17 11
Total Nos of Casual Labour 1 18 5
There has naturally been a reduction over the years, most obviously the horse population. The numbers regularly employed in agriculture have fallen for many reasons, principally the demise of dairying. Notably the casual labour numbers rose sharply as the transition to a beef cow and sheep economy occurred (more later). Certainly the poultry numbers are under-estimated as there are a number of non-farming Collachs keeping hens and ducks.
Perhaps a quick word on the source of this information would be of use. For many years the Department of Agriculture for Scotland has taken a census of the full details of farming practice and stock numbers on every farm in Scotland on the 6th June every year. This information is catalogued by Parish. So the Isle of Coll, parish number 164 has had this information recorded for many years.
For the purposes of this discussion it would be more straightforward to consider stocking and cropping separately.
Stocking
As was mentioned in the last issue of 'The Coll Magazine', Coll was renowned for its cheeses. The cattle population was therefore based on dairy cows. In 1940 there were 278 dairy cows and 69 beef cows. After the closure of the creamery and a change in beef cow subsidy payments, the breeding cow numbers in 1960 had altered to 417 beef cows and 29 dairy cows. (The trend continued, when in 1981 there were 450 beef cows and no dairy cows. The obvious conclusion is that total breeding cow numbers have increased considerably. The relatively low labour requirement for beef cows is principally the answer to the reduced numbers employed in agriculture.
Over the same period the numbers of cattle over 1 year old reared for beef fell from 259 to 56 in 1981. This simply indicates a major change in farm policy. In the early part of the time scale being considered, calves were kept about 2 years before being sold. This system is generally recognised to have been necessary because of the poorer quality of stock produced. Nowadays young stock is of much better quality so calves are normally sold in October with poorer stock kept until the following February-April when they are about one year old. The numbers of such stock sold in 1940 were very few indeed while in 1981 approximately 209 calves were sold. These calves would, in 1940, have been retained and sold at a much older age. 11
The most significant change in farming practice has been in the numbers of breeding ewes. The following table shows this change. The efficiency of lamb production is shown in the precentage figure which indicates the numbers of lambs produced per 100 ewes.
1940 1960 1981
No Breeding Ewes 2545 4461 4612
No Young Breeding Stock 599 984 1292
No Lambs at 6th June 2151 3501 4688
Percentage of Lambs: Ewes 85 78 102
There has been a colossal increase in the lambs produced. As well as an imporant source of income, it also supplies a greater selection of young breeding stock which leads to a great improvement in the quality of the ewes. This is one reason why the quality of Coll sheep is held in such high regard.
Cropping
A resume of the cropping situation is illustrated in the following table:
1940 1960 1981
Oats acres 230 132 75
Grass for Mowing (hay/silage)acres 490 372 416
Brassicas (turnips/rape/kale) acres 31 24 41
Potatoes acres 20 9 10
Other Crops for feeding acres - 11 25
Total 771 548 567
In a livestock oriented agricultural economy (as Coll is) virtually all crops are grown for stock feeding (other than potatoes, usually grown for human consumption). Where there is a supply of cheap labour then a diversity of labour-intensive crops can be grown. However, when labour becomes relatively more expensive then an alternative is to invest in machinery as a labour substitute, so labour-intensive crops are no longer grown. Apart from hay/silage, the main crop grown was oats. These were harvested by the binder, left in stooks in the field and stored in corn-stacks - now considered old fashioned. As the table shows, only 75 acres of oats are grown now, compared to 230 in 1940 when oats were stacked and, in the winter, were fed either in the sheaf or were thrashed and the grain fed loose. Oats grown nowadays are cut and stored as silage in exactly the same way as grass. Therefore no grain is produced because it is expensive to grow and so it is brought in the form of cattle cake.
It is interesting to note that the brassica acreage has increased. In 1940 the 31 acres of brassicas was entirely turnips. In 1981 this acreage had been reduced to 3.5 acres - the remaining acreage being in the form of rape and kale. Low labour input crops are of extreme value in sheep enterprises.
There is still a high acreage of hay growth today - 416 acres as opposed to 490 and with the use of fertilisers, improved grass seeds, etc., yields are very much higher than in the past.
Despite the fact that some hay is bought in (this tends to be seasonal - usually after a bad season), Coll can be considered virtually self sufficient in the supply of fodder. As with hill farms in any other area of Scotland, cattle cake is purchased rather than using home grown grain.
Agriculture in Coll has moved with the times - successfully. Numbers and quality of both cattle and sheep have improved dramatically with a reasonable reliance on modern techniques for crop production and storage.
Despite what you see around, yes, agriculture in Coll is alive and well - and so are the farmers! |
