Surrounding both Osprey Cottage and Islabank Farmhouse are the beautiful surroundings of Strathisla Farms, a working grassland and arable farm, which is home to two pedigree beef cattle herds and a commercial beef suckler herd and managed by the Ivory family.

There are various tasks being carried out on the farm throughout the year, so here’s a snap shot of what might be going on during your stay in Perthshire.

The start of the year is always a quiet time on the farm due to cattle being housed. We usually concentrate our efforts on preparing bulls for the breed society sales. We also hold a family pheasant shoot on the farm.

This is sale season for us so we will often be preparing cattle for the major sale held in Stirling, We also start fertilizer spreading on some of fields.

March sees the continuing of fertilizer spreading and some sowing of seed on the arable land. We also start calving at this time of year.

Providing we have a good, relatively warm, spring, we can usually start to turn cows and calves out in to the lush green pastures. We’re also finishing sowing seed on some of the arable land.

This is when we start spraying the crops to ensure we maximise our arable yields at harvest time.  We will also be training some of our younger cattle to walk on a halter as well as getting them used to be washing in preparation for the summer show circuit.

This is one of the best times of year on the farm. Bulls are turned out to the cows for mating and grass fields are being silage to ensure we have enough forage for the winter feeding period. We also start showing in June and attend the Alyth Show and the Royal Highland, with a team of cattle from both herds.

July sees the start of harvest, with us gradually getting ready for our busiest work period. We start by servicing the main machinery and equipment to ensure a hassle free harvest. If the crops have had a good spring then we can start harvesting as well in July.

This is the busiest time on the farm with all hands on deck getting the harvest in. During august we will be combining, baling, carting grain and grain drying.

September sees the end of the harvest period and the start of ploughing and sowing for the next crop. Cattle also go through their winter vaccination programme to ensure they remain healthy and we start calving the autumn herd.

By now we will have finished sowing and the cattle start to be housed for the winter. October is also a busy selling time on the farm, so cattle are getting ready for the October Bull Sales in Stirling.

This is usually our “catch up” month on the farm where we see to any routine jobs that need doing. Cattle are housed during this time of year and we also start winter ploughing. We also start the shooting season on the farm which lasts through to January.

The festive period and hopefully time for celebrating a good year on the farm! Calves are being weaned at this point and cattle are given their annual health check.