Scottish Agricultural College Developing Rural Excellence

SAC (Scottish Agricultural College) is an educational organisation supporting the development of land-based industries through specialist research and training provision combined with advisory and consultancy services to private companies, government departments, levy boards plus other academic and local authority organisations.

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The Easter Howgate Farm at Penicuik, near Edinburgh is a working farm which plays an important scientific role in understanding diverse subjects such as animal behaviour, food chain quality and nutrition levels. The main focus at the farm is breeding pigs, with 95 large white sows producing 2,000 piglets over a 12 month period, the farrow piglets are initially kept with the mother pig for 8 days then weaned into weaner accommodation when the piglets
reach up to 20kg. They enter the grower stage (50kg) before moving into the finishing stage when they reach 100kg. The full life cycle is within 5/6 months from birth to slaughter and currently pork and bacon prices are up by 60% compared to last year’s prices.

Working inside restricted animal houses requires an ultra compact machine to undertake all the daily essential tasks of the farm, a‘Buggiscopic’ BT420 is the ideal solution for cleaning muck out of the buildings where the indoor pigs are kept with a scraper attachment and then loading the muck outside into a midden (dung heap).

Other duties include loading/unloading palletised feedstuffs, handling round bales of straw onto an elevated platform storage facility and for placing into position in the animal bedding areas. Peter Finnie of the S.A.C. commented : “ We liked the old ‘Buggiscopic’ so much we bought another one to replace it! The critical dimensions are perfect for operating in the confined areas of the farm. The new machine incorporates the JSM control which is easier to use and replaces the old style four lever configuration. The dashboard is another improvement with a better layout”. Some things are constant and the ‘Buggiscopic’ features which never change are the good vision and the ease of getting in and out of the cab.Peter concluded : “ The ‘Buggiscopic’ is a central part of our farming efficiency at East Howgate we even use it to transport piglets!” Wm. Rose & Sons of West Linton supplied the Manitou.