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Scotland's larder: Bryce Cunningham from Mossgiel dairy farm

In our latest in our Scotland's Larder, we talk to Ayrshire farmer Bryce Cunningham about the dairy industry and what it is like farming where Robert Burns wrote some of his early poems.

By: Catriona Thomson
Published: January 15, 2021
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Bryce Cunningham from Mossgiel dairy farm in Ayrshire shares a connection with a certain ploughman poet.

Robert Burns lived at the farm between 1784 -86 and along with his brother Gilbert, they worked on the place after their father was declared bankrupt.

During his time here, Rabbie met Jean Armour, wrote poems including 'To a mouse' and had his first book of poetry published.

Working in the bards footsteps Bryce said: “I share a connection, I can be doing a manual task, thinking about nothing then all of a sudden you think - hang on a minute Burns was here.”

Because of its elevated location and the weather, Bryce added: “we have a very heavy clay soil which is still a bit of a challenge to farm at times.”

The milking parlour at West Mossgiel in Mauchline, Ayrshire. Picture Robert Perry

A Man's a Man for a' That

He lives here with his fiancee Ashley, along with their blended family; Harris (7) and Murray (4), Arran (5) and a daughter Blaire (8 months). He said, “I got engaged on Christmas day, and we are looking to get married this year.”

Growing up here, he had no interest in going into farming instead he left school aged 16 to work at Mercedes Benz as an apprentice technician.

However in 2013 he discovered both his father and grandfather had serious health conditions so he decided to return to help out.

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The timing could not have been worse: sadly both his grandfather and father died. In addition, the dairy sector was in crisis and the farm was saddled with massive debt.

Bryce explained: "our milk price had dropped from 27p to 9p, I was working 20 hours a day but our hands were tied by this really low price, which was effectively going to throw us out of business. It just felt very very unfair.”

In 2015 the bank pulled its funding, which was a blow: “I was forced to sell most of the cows, some machinery and a small amount of land we owned just to survive," Bryce said.

Mossgiel dairy glass bottles

At Mossgiel they produce the gold standard but seasonal milk

"My grandpa and grandmother had been on the farm since 1948 and they had always said farming was never the easiest way of life but they had been able to make a living.

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“In my fathers years, through no fault of his own, there was debt, stress and the cows had to produce more and more milk just to stay on the farm. All of this was caused by how the international milk market worked.”

A lot of bottle

Frustrated by the situation, he along with another 30 farmers, staged a protest at local supermarkets. They bought all the milk from the store then gave it away to people for free.

“I felt we must have been doing something right in the past.”

He said: "people were asking how they could support local farmers." This gave him the idea to become independent and offer doorstep deliveries.

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He also decided to farm organically, and to pasteurise the milk themselves.

“We don't standardise the milk here, so we are able to supply a more natural milk but we do ask slightly more for it. It is only available as a seasonal product from April to December, we call it the gold standard milk.”

Mossgiel is Scotland's only Pasture for Life accredited dairy which means the cows only eat grass.

Bryce explained this: “to run that system, we can't graze outside during the winter months so the cows come in and we feed them and they get a four month holiday from milking.”

Dairy farmer Bryce Cunningham milking his herd at his farm West Mossgiel in Mauchline, Ayrshire. Picture Robert Perry

Making the change to organic was not easy, the ground needed to detox and initially they ended up spending a lot of money buying in organic grass to keep the cows fed.

He said: “we also had a lot of issues with weeds, and rushes. Burns even wrote a poem about them.”

Luckily the breed is very good at turning low quality plant material into very high quality milk.

Grass fed Ayrshire cows' milk is ideal for use in speciality latte artwork which opened up a new market supplying high end coffee shops.

Now in their fifth year of organic farming Bryce feels they are only starting to understand how the land works. They use a no till farming approach “but we don't use any ploughs.”

One of the herd at Mossgiel in Mauchline, Ayrshire. Picture Robert Perry

Their initial successes meant that they soon ran out of milk to supply their customers, because of the limited number of cows they could keep on the existing farm land.

To expand, Bryce then decided to supported other organic farms from the south west of Scotland, by buying their milk to satisfy increasing demand.

"We made a couple of stipulations: they had to be small organic family farms with a policy for their bull calves are not shot at birth.

"In the UK 90 000 dairy bull calves are culled and that is something I feel very strongly about, it is a serious flaw in the dairy industry."

"This other milk, which we sell 365 days of the year, comes from those five farms, which were already organic or in the process of converting. We pasteurise, bottle it here and then deliver it everyday.

"We have got our own doorstep delivery run supplying around 450 houses around the farm. But we also supply milk to other dairies, across the central belt of Scotland and further north."

Mossgiel girls

The herd now has 48 Ayrshire cows, that are affectionately called the Mossgiel girls - a nod to Robert Burns' ode to the Mauchline lasses or poem 'The Belles of Mauchline'

Bryce ensures that the calves stay with the cows until they get weaned, then bull calves are sold off to Peelham farm on the East Coast and then the heifers (females) all stay here and join the milking herd at around three years old.

In Burns' day they also had the same breed of cow and Rabbie's mother Agnes Broun, made cheese from their milk.

Bryce Cunningham Mossgiel dairy

Dairy farmer Bryce Cunningham amongst his herd at his farm Mossgiel in Mauchline, Ayrshire. Picture Robert Perry

He said, “In a way, we are trying to recreate the milk that Robert Burns would have drank.”

At Mossgiel they don't dehorn their cattle, as Bryce explained: “I saw these fantastic pictures of the horned cattle back in the 1940's and 50's and I thought Ayrshire cows should have horns like they did back in Burns' day.”

However, it turns out that Robert Burns had argued the very opposite opinion at an Ayrshire agricultural society meeting, for safety reasons.

Farming life

Bryce explained they have three breeding bulls on the farm: “the main man is called Vision, another Endurance and we are thinking of calling the third one Rabbie but we haven't confirmed that just yet.” he said.

They have a cow happiness manager called Elizabeth, her job is to make sure the cows are looked after and are comfortable and healthy.

Elizabeth is at all the calves birth and gets to name them, so some of the Mossgiel girls are named; Cherub, Lizzie, Louisa, Breeze, Stella and Frankie.

"During the miking season they are milked once a day at 8 am, then they go out to pasture with the calves.

"Then we bring them back at 6pm at night and the calves get put in a straw bed by themselves to give their mums a rest, then the cows then go back out to eat the grass during the night."

Mossgiel is still very much a family concern with his sisters and mother involved, he said: “if we ever have any issue with staff or whatever they are the first ones to come and help out.”

Bryce explained that they recently opened their own coffee shop in Mauchline which they hope will be used as a community space for local groups to meet free of charge.

Dairy farmer Bryce Cunningham from West Mossgiel in Mauchline, Ayrshire. Picture Robert Perry

Environmental concerns

Bryce also explained the farm's environmental ethos saying: “I really genuinely believe we can make a massive difference to the Scottish dairy industry. We are going to try and become carbon neutral in 2025.

"We are replacing two of our vans with electric ones and hoping to install renewables to try and reduce our carbon footprint.”

They were the first plastic free organic dairy in Scotland, and they have forged a relationship with a catering company. In four months they have reduced the use of 14 0000 plastic bottles.

"We first announced that we were going to become single use plastic free back in 2019.

"Everything we supply milk in now is reusable: 1 pint traditional glass bottles, 2 litre glass bottle with screw caps, 5 and 20 litre reusable buckets and 50 litre milk churn, so everything can be washed."

In 2019 they won the future food category at the BBC Food and Farming Awards and recently Mossgiel won the most sustainable rural business at Scottish rural awards.

"Fingers crossed one day this vision of mine for Mossgiel, will really come true. It has led me along a path of realising just how important organic farming is to facing the climate emergency."

But not everyone agrees with his vision: “the thing is, you never create change by pleasing everyone,” Bryce said.

"You need to be passionate to farm, I would love my kids to do what I did and go off into another industry see a bit of the world and then back to it if they wanted to."

Returning under the circumstances he faced, “was just a nightmare of a time.”

Bryce is still passionate about farming, but he said, “there are certainly dark days - and you do get very difficult days.”

But he is proud of what he has achieved. saying: "hen we had to sell the cows, I genuinely didn't think we would be there a year later, so I really do see a bright future because of the fact that we were able work with the local community to save the farm."

Bryce Cunningham Mossgiel dairy

 

Mossgiel Organic Farm, 

Tarbolton Road,
Mauchline,
East Ayrshire,
KA5 5LL

01290 550 307

 

• READ MORE: Scotland’s Larder: Stuart Cannon, from Kames Fish Farming

Scotland’s Larder: Stuart Cannon, from Kames Fish Farming

By: Catriona Thomson
Catriona is a freelance writer based in the Scottish Borders, and a nominee for Food and Drink writer at this year's Scottish Press Awards.

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