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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Duncan Jefferies

‘It was go bankrupt or try something different’ – how one Scottish farmer is rewriting the rules of dairy farming

Mossgiel Organic Farm, Mauchline, East Ayrshire. Bryce Cunningham, farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm near Mauchline is pictured in a field with some of his herd of Ayrshire cows.
Dairy farmer Bryce Cunningham has overcome numerous challenges to keep his farm thriving. Photograph: Colin Mearns

Bryce Cunningham never set out to be a farmer. During childhood visits to his grandparents’ dairy farm in East Ayrshire, where they’d lived and worked since 1948, he always enjoyed a glass of milk straight from the cow. But he had “no interest whatsoever” in taking on the farm one day. So instead of following in his grandfather’s (and father’s) footsteps, he became a technician for Mercedes-Benz, spent 10 “very enjoyable” years with the company, and fully expected to remain there – until a family emergency changed the course of his life.

His father, grandfather and grandmother – the three partners in the family dairy business – all became very ill. When Cunningham returned home to help out, “I fell in love with farming a wee bit more than when I was growing up.”

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