Agri Culture

You are listening to Agri Culture, a podcast that aims to explore the stories of the people that make up our agricultural industry and culture of farming, in Scotland and beyond. On today’s episode Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Lauren Houstoun from Glenkilrie Larder who tells us about her farming business, Glenkilrie Farm, which she runs with her husband Andrew and in-laws David and Morag Houstoun...

You are listening to Agri Culture, a podcast that aims to explore the stories of the people that make up our agricultural industry and culture of farming, in Scotland and beyond. On today’s episode Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Julie McLaren. Julie is a Bank Relationship Director – Agriculture & Landed Estates, and Vice Chair of Women in Agriculture Scotland. Julie tells us about her career in...

You are listening to Agri Culture, a podcast that aims to explore the stories of the people that make up our agricultural industry and culture of farming, in Scotland and beyond. On today’s episode Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Bertie Troughton, Hugh Chamerlain and Laura McDonald of Atholl Estates. They join us to talk about how in recent years they have started to move towards regenerative farmin...

You are listening to Agri Culture, a podcast that aims to explore the stories of the people that make up our agricultural industry and culture of farming, in Scotland and beyond. Welcome to part one of a two-part episode series about Steading and Co and the family. Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Phillip, Konrad, Symone and Alex, a multigenerational family running a regenerative farming business in...

You are listening to Agri Culture, a podcast that aims to explore the stories of the people that make up our agricultural industry and culture of farming, in Scotland and beyond. Welcome to part two of a two-part episode series about Steading and Co and the family. Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Phillip, Konrad, Symone and Alex, a multigenerational family running a regenerative farming business in...

You are listening to Agri Culture, a podcast that aims to explore the stories of the people that make up our agricultural industry and culture of farming, in Scotland and beyond.  On today’s episode Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Anna Wylie and Jack Munro. Anna and Jack met when they both attended the Tesco Future Farmer programme for young farmers run through Harper Adams university.  Th...

You are listening to Agri Culture, a podcast that aims to explore the stories of the people that make up our agricultural industry and culture of farming, in Scotland and beyond.  On today’s episode Mary-Jane is joined by Barbara McLeod. Barbara owns and runs Cruciferous Croft in the Lochinver area of North West Scotland.  She took on a croft herself, renovating an old building to live i...

You are listening to Agri Culture, a podcast that aims to explore the stories of the people that make up our agricultural industry and culture of farming, in Scotland and beyond.  On today’s episode Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Wallace Currie.  Wallace may be familiar to you as he runs his own podcast R2Kast as part of his brand Rural 2 Kitchen, which started during lockdown as a way to...

Content Warning: The following episode mentions pregnancy loss.    Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Eilidh Verstage from Arngask Home Farm. Eilidh and her husband Lloyd are new entrants, who purchased Arngask 4 years ago.  They have rare breed pigs and this year have just started growing chemical free vegetables to sell wholesale, at markets and locally in weekly veg boxes.  They...

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Liz Haines to talk about her lived experience of being neurodivergent and working in agriculture.  Liz tells us about her background in farming and how she and her husband became new entrants to agriculture.  Liz shares some of her systems and process that help her run their successful dairy farm since being diagnosed with ADHD in 2022.  This diagnosis...

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Josh Barton from Brose Oats.   Josh tells us about the company, Brose Oats, and their oat milk products, telling us the story of how the company grew from an idea in a small kitchen, to distributing Scottish oat milk across the Lothians and beyond.  He also talks about the importance of sustainability, both in terms of food production, but also in terms...

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by James Logan, the current chairman of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland.  This episode was recorded in the lead up to the Royal Highland Show 2025, and James tells us about changes at the Society and what he is looking forward to about this year’s show.  He talks about his life in agriculture and how he got involved with RHASS.  Tha...

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by John Ferguson, founder and CEO of Sisaltech Ltd, a Scottish company which produces sustainable building insulation from natural sisal fibres and Scottish wool. In this episode John shares his unique story on how he got started, his sustainable business goals and his top tips for business success.  Thanks for joining us for this episode of Agri Culture. If you’d l...

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Ally Brunton chair of SAYFC and Jillian Kennedy, SAYFC Vice chair. They both talk about their time in young farmers and the experiences and benefits of being in the club.  They also tell us about the SAYFC Respect campaign which was launched at the Highland Show in 2024, which aims to allow every member to contribute to SAYFC as a safe, inclusive, fun enviro...

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Kenneth Bone from Glenkiln Farm on the Isle of Arran. Kenneth Bone farms Glenkiln Farm on the Isle of Arran with his family.  They won the Diversified Farm of the year award at last year’s Scottish Agriculture Awards, as well as taking home the Champion of Champions trophy.  The business has an impressive portfolio, from the farming business to hydro scheme,...

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Stephanie Berkeley from the Farm Safety Foundation  Stephanie Berkeley is Manager of the Farm Safety Foundation, which you might know also as Yellow Wellies.  The Farm Safety Foundation was established in 2014 with the aim of improving farm safety in the UK.  The Foundation runs successful campaigns such as Farm Safety week and educates young farmers ac...

Listener Advisory Note : This episode contains a mention of suicide, please listen with care.    Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Jim Chapman, farmer and farm safety ambassador.  Jim talks openly about the farm accident that changed his life when he lost his arm in a PTO shaft.  He talks about the impact that had on him, and how he got through the dark times.  He tells us how...

In this episode, Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Cathy Magee from Dyslexia Scotland. Cathy Magee is the chief executive of Dyslexia Scotland.  We talked about what dyslexia is, how it can affect you, and how to go about getting an assessment.  Dyslexia Scotland have a range of resources available to support people with dyslexia. Cathy also tells us about the technologies and adaptatio...

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Pete Black of Collessie Feeds and Newton of Colessie Farm.  Pete Black farms at Newton of Collessie with his parents and brother.  They run a successful diversified farming business with arable, commercial cattle, pedigree sheep and Clydesdales, alongside Collessie Feeds.  We chatted about the farm business and the various enterprises and the family’s t...

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Fred Swift from South Clunes Farm and Highland Clip, and Stella Stewart from Anta.   Fred Swift farms South Clunes Farm near Inverness in the Highlands with his wife Sofi and his father.  They run a traditional upland farm with cattle and sheep.  Fred and his family have transformed the farm over the last 40 years, increasing biodiversity and intro...

Mary-Jane Lawrie visits Whitriggs Farm in the Scottish Borders to speak to Lesley Mitchell.  They chat about the family farm and how it has evolved over the years, their openness to challenges and change, and how that has allowed Lesley and her family to build a business that supports the family whilst also allowing a good work life balance.  Once key change has been converting the busin...

I'm Mary-Jane Lawrie, and in this episode I’m joined Claire Taylor.  Claire is a journalist and describes herself as an agricultural communicator.  She has recently finished her travels as part of her Nuffield Farming Scholarship and is now in the process of compiling all the information from her travels.  We talk about her career and how that led her to applying for the scholarship...

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Jenn Stewart.  Jenn Stewart, partner & Head of Rural and Landed Estates at Johnston Carmichael, joined the company in 2019. Jenn has extensive experience in advising owner managed businesses and provides counsel to a wide-ranging portfolio of clients across multiple sectors. Jenn was brought up in her own family farming business and is now involved in her hus...

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Kirsten Williams.  Kirsten is a livestock specialist with SAC Consulting and she also runs a farm business on Ranna Farm in Aberdeenshire with her husband Ross.  They have sheep, cattle, and a turkey enterprise on their rented farm.  They were new entrants, working hard to secure a tenancy and build up their business to support them and their family.&nb...

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by some of the team at Glenrinnes Estate at the foot of Ben Rinnes in Moray.  Estate manager Ali Laing tells us about the estate as a whole, and we are joined by head keeper Gordon Aitchison, distillery manager Martin Peroni, trainee farm worker Alex Shearer and head gardener Damon Powell.  They all share their stories of working on Glenrinnes Estate and how th...