southfield farm tour

Location: Southfield Farm, kindly hosted by Hamish with Innovis and Dewi.

We had a highly engaging tour of Southfield Farm, where we explored how genetics and data-driven sheep breeding are playing a vital role in building climate resilience in upland farming systems. Key themes included:

• Low-input, high-efficiency breeding: Innovis genetics are designed to reduce feed, labor, and vet costs, thereby cutting emissions intensity per lamb produced.

• Maternal trait selection: Choosing for hardy, fertile ewes reduces the carbon footprint of flocks by improving lifetime productivity.

• Adaptability to changing climates: Breeding strategies focused on resilience help farms withstand increasingly volatile weather and grazing conditions.

Hamish offered a grounded, practical view on how sheep farmers can both adapt to and mitigate climate change while maintaining viable businesses.

🌳 Tweed Forum Agroforestry

Focus: Agroforestry, biodiversity, and climate solutions

This part of the visit showcased how agroforestry is emerging as a key climate solution, blending productive agriculture with woodland creation. Highlights included:

• Carbon sequestration: Integrated tree planting locks up carbon while enhancing landscape aesthetics and shelter for livestock.

• Natural flood management: Trees and hedgerows slow water runoff and improve water retention, helping to buffer farms and communities against extreme rainfall events.

• Biodiversity as climate resilience: Agroforestry improves soil health and encourages pollinators and pest predators, reducing dependency on external inputs.

• Policy alignment: The projects demonstrated how working with schemes like Scotland’s Forestry Grant Scheme and Peatland ACTION can help farmers deliver climate benefits at scale.

The collaboration between Tweed Forum and Buccleuch Estates provided a strong example of landscape-scale thinking for climate and nature recovery.