David Aglen — Farmer Focus Writer

Farm Manager at Balbirnie Home Farms, Fife, Scotland — a 1,200 ha mixed estate with 800 ha of arable cropping, 300 ha of grassland, 200 suckler cows and up to 1,000 store lambs over winter, plus 350 ha of commercial forestry. The Balfour family has owned the estate since 1642. David has been at Balbirnie since 2010 and has led its progressive transition first away from intensive cultivations and now into a full regenerative agriculture system. Hosts AHDB Strategic Cereal Farm Scotland since September 2020.

Profile

Field Value
Role Farm Manager
Estate Balbirnie Home Farms
Location Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland
Arable 800 ha (winter wheat, spring barley, oats, spring beans, root and brassica veg let out)
Livestock 200 suckler cows + up to 1000 store lambs
Forestry 350 ha (mainly Sitka spruce + ornamental/exotic)
Soil Light sandy to heavier loams, ~100m above sea level
Rainfall ~900 mm
Drills 6m Horizon DSX 60-20 (newly arrived) + 6m Väderstad Rapid (replaced 4m JD 750A and 5m Väderstad Carrier)

Issue 17 — Strategic Cereal Farm Scotland (April 2022)

Brief mention in the AHDB Strategic Farm Report December 2021 round-up. Key areas of focus listed for Balbirnie under David’s stewardship:

  • Regenerative agricultural practices
  • Diverse rotation including oats, spring barley, winter wheat, spring beans, potatoes and brassica vegetables
  • 800 ha arable + 200 suckler cows on 1,200 ha total
  • Cover crops as a major focus area for the AHDB programme

[Source: dd-issue-17, 2026-04-13]

Issue 18 — The Figures Behind the Regenerative Values (July 2022)

A substantial 2,000+ word feature by Tom Allen-Stevens profiling David’s farm walk and his engagement with Trinity AgTech’s Sandy software to baseline natural capital. This is the deepest single profile of David and his Balbirnie operation in the Direct Driller back catalogue.

Mob-grazing winter wheat

The most striking image: a 20 ha winter wheat field divided by electric fencing into paddocks, with sheep being rotated through it in early March. The wheat has lost most of its above-ground winter biomass to the grazing, but fresh green shoots are coming through. The intent: to avoid having to apply T1 fungicide and growth regulator and to give the crop early-season nutrition + fertility from the manure.

“These [lower] leaves were never going to contribute very much to yield, and would just be an extra cost in terms of the fungicide we’d have to apply.”

Why Sandy and Trinity Natural Capital Markets

David is interested in his carbon baseline AND biodiversity score, and in measuring the carbon effect of specific practices field-by-field. The estate has come on board with Sandy for this:

“It’s not just about the 800ha of arable cropping we have. We have 300ha in permanent pasture or temporary grass for our 200-head herd of suckler cows. There are also forage and cover crops, land let out for root and vegetable crops and 350ha of commercial forestry.”

The estate’s drill journey

  • Started with a 4m John Deere 750A — too small, run too hard, compaction emerging
  • Plus a 5m Väderstad Carrier for shallow cultivation and broadcasting cover crops
  • Now: 6m Horizon DSX 60-20 (barely used at the time of writing) plus a recently acquired 6m Väderstad Rapid as a backup if cultivation is needed
  • Aim: 100% direct drilling
  • Tractor count: down from 4 to 2 since David arrived in 2010

Cover crops as a year-round green-cover system

David aims for green soil cover all year, choosing vigorous, large-seeded species that establish quickly. One cover crop taken through to summer measured over 90 t/ha of biomass — David is now keen to know where all that carbon goes. Cover crops are fed to livestock, drilled through in spring, or left as a mulch.

Outwintered youngstock

The suckler-beef youngstock are kept outside all winter — “These animals will never see a shed, and I believe it’s better for them and for the soil.” But David wants Trinity to tell him whether the grazing benefit offsets the methane and the slower liveweight gain on a carbon basis.

Manure regularly turned

A heap on the way back to the farm buildings is regularly turned and composted down — resulting in lower-volume, more nutrient-dense material that’s spread back onto the arable land.

Switching the straw-burning grain-drying boiler back to kerosene

“It used to dry the grain, and when we removed it and installed a kerosene burner, I finally got my life back. Removing it may be a backwards step in terms of our carbon footprint, but it was an almighty pain to run, and I’ve never once regretted the decision.”

Trinity’s Alasdair Sykes notes that grain-drying is only ~10–20% of arable emissions and switching kerosene to biodiesel (where sourceable) drops the contribution to ~20% of its current level.

Agroforestry plans

David is planning to put up to 40 ha of arable cropping into agroforestry to add to the existing commercial woodland and the 6.5 km of newly planted hedgerow. Sandy now has a specific agroforestry module for accurate carbon modelling.

Foliar N trial

Buys bulk urea but is now trialling foliar nitrogen with the theory that it could reduce synthetic N inputs by 25–50% through better uptake per kg.

David’s verdict on the seven-year journey

“We’ve been experimenting with a number of different aspects of regenerative agriculture and we know now what works in a practical sense. It’ll help enormously to put the figures on these and to establish our overall baseline. It takes time though — we’ve been on this journey for seven years and we’re still learning, so there’s plenty of scope to adapt and develop.”

“If we’re sequestering carbon, we should trade that — carbon is cash. But equally that shouldn’t come at a cost to our overall production. The farm output has dipped across the rotation with our move to regenerative agriculture — not massively, but I’d like to bring it back up, sustainably, and that remains the priority.”

[Source: dd-issue-18, 2026-04-13]

Issue 20 — Sheep, Kale and the Cow That Works For You (January 2023)

David’s first full Farmer Focus column — a detailed explanation of how cattle, sheep and the kale forage crop have become central to Balbirnie’s regen transition.

From cattle feeder to cattle managed

Cows traditionally housed all winter with copious straw bedding and grain feeding, and the only arable interaction was FYM and straw removal. “We were always busy on the ground feeding, bedding and mucking out etc, whilst the farm office was always busy writing cheques!” From 2013 they began feeding cows on stubbles through the winter; in 2018 kale was introduced as a winter forage crop. Now:

“The realisation that the animals are all equipped with an in-built harvesting, processing and dung spreading system, has transformed how we manage them now. Instead of taking the food to the cow, we now take the cow to the food, and she does her thing.”

Kale as a break crop and fertility builder

The 40 ha of kale a year leaves a wealth of fertility in its wake, allowing N to spring crops following to be cut to 40 kg/ha while maintaining good yields. The drawback: outwintered cattle cause structural damage to wet soils and make direct drilling the following spring tricky. Solution in development: build fertility and integration over a much larger area via a new partner flock — David and a pair of “enthusiastic sheep keepers” have begun a share arrangement bringing 800 store lambs and 700 breeding ewes onto cover crops across most of the farm this winter.

The 16-way summer cover crop that worked once

2021: 90 t/ha fresh-weight lush green biomass grown with just the seed as a cost on 14 ha. “This seemed too easy”. So 2022 was scaled to 60 ha — and David admits he “didn’t even bother to measure the result, the photographs will do all the explaining. Suffice to say, we won’t be repeating the exercise next year.”

Challenge for 2023

Cover-crop establishment planning for the new year-round sheep system: can cattle and sheep mobs graze together? Can the cover mix be more diverse while still productive? “We are confident of our ability to grow sufficient food for the winter, but how will our grass hold up in the drier seasons?”

[Source: dd-issue-20, 2026-04-13]

Issue 22 — Caesarians, Yellow Rust and a Cow Called Hazel (July 2023)

Calving came with more interventions than expected — a handful of C-sections on larger calves out of heifers, suggesting the breeding line needs weeding of those niggles. But newly-calved cows were turned out onto cover crops of rye within a few days of calving, which massively reduced silage use and the disease build-up of a winter shed. Next year they plan to calve outside, slightly later; if successful, cattle will no longer need to be housed at all.

The spring barley no-till breakthrough

The fickleness of no-till spring barley has been one of Balbirnie’s biggest tech headaches — forming one of the AHDB Strategic Farm trials. David credits sheep grazing cover crops down hard before direct drilling:

“Barley sown into fields where the cover crops were eaten right down have established very strongly and will give any conventionally established crop a run for its money in my view. Where we left even a small amount of residue, crop vigour after emergence has not been too good.”

Store lambs leave more residue because they need higher-quality grazing; breeding ewes will eat cover crops right down and so will be prioritised ahead of spring barley in future.

The yellow rust observation

Of the wheat fields grazed by sheep over winter, every one of them remained clean of yellow rust in mid-May. The only unexposed field became the only one with a “rather colourful outbreak of yellow rust”. Not plot-trial science, “but this observation alone is enough to make winter cereal grazing a planned part of the system every year.”

The rotational cow-kale-rye-silage system

Kale dovetails with an overwintered rye/vetch cover crop. The cover is mowed and baled in May; bales are lined up across the field alongside the strip-grazed kale; kale is direct-drilled into the stubble; “that’s the winter feed all set up”. Calves left on their mothers for 8 weeks longer than usual learned to eat rye silage — “in hindsight, it is obvious that a calf should learn such things from its mother”.

Hazel, the tame cow

A memorable closing image: David’s grass-growth decisions made by “a week of thinking about slowing the grazing down, before realising that we need to slow down now, or actually, a week ago”. Alternative: consulting Hazel, the tame cow. “Whilst she won’t give me the answer, she does serve as a calming influence on a really stressful day. Five minutes with her, and you’re ready to tackle the world again.”

[Source: dd-issue-22, 2026-04-13]

Appearances

Issues 17 (brief, AHDB Strategic Farm), 18 (Trinity AgTech Sandy feature), 20, 22, 25

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