AgriScot Scottish Dairy Farm of the Year assessor Gregor Colquhoun has selected four farms from which the final award winner will be selected.
They are: R&L Barron, Darrahill Udny (Ronald Barron) with 269 Holsteins; Hardgrove Farm Dumfries Ltd, Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire (Alistair Marshall) with 370 Holsteins; Wm Hamilton and Son, Meldrum, Blairdrummond (David Hamilton) with 643 Holsteins and T&C Owen, Potstown, Lockerbie (Tom & Gareth Owen) with 127 Holsteins.
This month Gregor, who is a member of the team from Dendoldrum Farm, Inverbervie, which has twice previously taken the top award, will visit all four farms to study everything from rearing, sire selection, practical management techniques, feeding and nutrition programmes and to view the cows.
Awards convener Jack Lawson said: “The overall standard of the top 20 this year was extremely high considering the challenges of feed quality last winter and the standards set are a great credit to the Scottish dairy industry.
“Gregor had a difficult task to select the top four without seeing names or addresses but he selected on calving age, calving index, somatic cell counts, yields and longevity.
“Each of the top fourwill be presented withcertificates at AgriScoton Wednesday November 19 when the winnerof the top award for 2014 will be announced,” he added.
AgriScot chairman Andrew Moir said: “Our four finalists are certainly beacons of good practice for all the industry andeveryone involved in the top 20 farms deservescongratulations.”