At the fifth National Arable and Grassland Awards, Farm Contractor & Large Scale Farmer and Agronomist & Arable Farmer celebrate the brightest and best within the agricultural industry.
The third generation of a farming family, James Bell has been passionate about the industry from a young age. Taking from his nomination in the competition – ‘His passion for all things machinery has grown from carpet farming to now contract farming 324ha of stubble to stubble arable’.
The family farm comprises both a substantial hill farm and a lowland mixed farm, however with two siblings also keen to join the business, James understood that he would need to diversify to ensure that the farm could support them all. With his passion being focused on machinery, and the farm only having around 56ha of arable, he decided to move into contracting.
He got his start straight after leaving school. His attention to detail on a variety of silage and ploughing jobs meant that he built a reputation quickly in the area and gained his first contract farming work through Roxburgh Estates.
He has handled the work as a one-man operation, investing heavily in precision farming equipment. He uses GPS, variable rate seed and fertiliser, and section control for seed and spraying. This allows him to provide an accurate result, saving the customer on seed/fertiliser therefore reducing wastage.
He subscribes to the Omnia farm management system, utilising soil sampling data plan operations based on soil health. One of the farms James works with showed severe soil deficiencies, which Omnia highlighted, leading to a dose of lime and a restructured crop rotation with the aim of providing higher yields with lower inputs.
His passion for the industry is not in doubt, but he continues to work within it when not on farm to encourage more people to get involved. He is heavily involved with the Scottish Borders ploughing matches, having competed himself from a young age. He also organises the local Ednam ploughing match, hoping to bridge the gap between the older generation and young farmers.
This work continued during his two-year role as chairman of the Ednam Young Farmers club, enabling him to not only encourage those coming into the industry, but make new contacts that have gone to help his own career. James is also keen to continuing developing his knowledge, getting on a plane for the first time in 2018 to spend four months in New Zealand and work for a contractor there.
At just 289, James has big ambitions for his business, aiming to reach 400ha of contract farming land. He plans to do this through continued hard work, as well as a demonstrative approach, building yields and soil health, as well as maintaining strong relationships with his customers.
And he wants to provide opportunities for the young farmers coming into the industry as well, aiming to hire a full-time employee that will help him spread the workload across a greater area in the future.
The National Arable and Grassland Awards are organised by Farm Contractor & Large Scale Farmer and Agronomist & Arable Farmer, in association with BASIS, the National Association of Agricultural Contractors and the Voluntary Initiative.
Our thanks to our sponsors AHDB, QLF and principal sponsors Barclays and Propel Finance.