In conversation with generational Speyside barley farmer Scott Ferguson
the family trade, a fast harvest, and climate swings
Speyside likes to hide its poetry in practical places. Ours was found on a dry September day, around a scrubbed pine kitchen table. Vic and I visited Scott Ferguson, a 3rd-generation farmer at the family farmhouse where his family has planned seed, watched skies, and counted loads for a century.
Scott’s family started farming this land in 1926. Today, he grows spring malting barley as his main crop—about 580 acres of it this year—and, like many in Moray, he measures time by sowing bouts and harvest starts rather than calendars.
As we sat with him, looking out the large windows onto the harvest fields, he told us about this year’s unprecedented early and fast harvest, his mother’s love for the industry, and the pivots he might need to make to keep the farm going.
(What follows is a curated transcript, lightly edited for clarity and flow.)
From the family ground
Shelly: How long have you been growing barley here, and what’s typical for your area?
Scott: "I've grown it for about 40 years. It's our main crop here; spring malting barley is the main crop for farmers round here. You’ll find pockets of oilseed rape and wheat and winter barley and stuff, but malting barley is the main thing here.”
Shelly: Why does this place suit it?
Scott: “This particular part of Moray is extremely suitable for growing malting barley. The land is not too heavy…a medium loamy ground that barley enjoys. Barley doesn’t like heavy clay, but it doesn’t like very, very dry sandy ground either; it likes a loamy, free-draining soil.
And the further north you go in the summer, the longer the day length, which is good for barley, because spring barley has a very short growing cycle. Mid-March to mid-April is the ideal sowing window, and we harvest usually about the 20th of August on to about the first week in September.
Shelly: You mentioned that your mum was in the whisky business. Can you tell us about her?
Scott: “She was steeped in it. She brought up five of us, then went back to work and got a job as a guide at Dallas Dhu when it was a museum distillery, run by Historic Scotland. Then she progressed up to Tamdhu distillery. And then from there, she went to Glenrothes and worked for a company called Cutty Sark Scotch whisky—the brand is owned by Berry Bros. & Rudd.
“She became PA to the Chairman. She was responsible for taking foreign tours, big buyers of the brand, round the distillery, entertaining them at Brodie Castle, particularly the Americans. She just loved, loved it. She was totally steeped in it, totally steeped in her job.”
Shelly: So whisky really is a family business for you.
Scott: “Aye. It’s been a generational thing. My grandfather was a farmer here. He came here in 1926 so next year will be 100 years here for the family. My father followed him, and I followed my father. And my mum loved her job in the industry; she would have loved to be sitting here today with you talking about this.”
This year’s early finish
Shelly: You've said before that barley is ready when it’s ready—when the moisture is right—and that someone with experience can touch the crop and just know that it’s time. This year it all seemed to arrive early. How early?
Scott: “This year has been the earliest harvest ever…all done and dusted by the 15th of August, which was unprecedented. We started on the 6th and took exactly one week to cut it: go, go, go every day. The ground was dry and it was very windy with no evaporation coming up through the soil to dampen the grain. Normally my target date for August is the 22nd, and looking back over 40 years that’s about right.”
Vic: You had a holiday clash on the team because of that, didn’t you?
Scott (laughing): “Aye. I’ve one employee, Willie. We looked at his summer holiday schedule and thought, no problem—by the 15th of August he’d be back and we’d just be ready to start, and we’ll allow ourselves a week of leeway. Well…we started on the 6th and it was finished the day he came home! That was the busiest week of my life, just myself.”
Vic: What does hot, dry weather do to the plant?
Scott: “In a normal year the long northern day helps: the plant realises it’s got a lot to do in a small window; it’s [photosynthesising], taking in sunlight, taking in water, and making starch. When it’s dry, barley gets stressed. It panics and senesces [deteriorates] too early. The heads come out a little bit sooner, so you don’t get the yield, and you get a reduction in quality.
Shelly: So are you feeling climate change directly?
Scott: “Most definitely. It’s the extremes. Last year it never stopped raining; this year it was too dry. That makes malting barley difficult. I’m trying to spread risk. I’m trialling winter malting barley this year, because the maltsters will take it high nitrogen or low nitrogen. It's ready mid-July, so it spreads the harvest and eases storage. It already has a rooting system over winter to take up moisture, so we’ll sow next week.”
The three numbers that make or break a load
Vic: What variety are you growing just now?
Scott: “Laureate. That’s all we grow at the moment. It’s widely grown and generally a good performer. And the distillers call the shots. They tell the maltsters what they want, and the maltsters tell us what to grow. Before laureate there was the concerto variety. We need varieties that suit the distillers and suit the farm—ones that are are bomb-proof in the field, because we’re speaking climate change.”
Shelly: After you grow and harvest, you see on to maltings, who then prepare the barley to be distilled. What are maltsters really looking for?
Scott: “Grain nitrogen and screenings are very important, and germination is essential. I’d say in order: germination, nitrogen, screenings. If it doesn’t germinate, it’s no use for the maltster; it goes to feed and you lose the premium.
One of my sheets this year showed moisture 14.2% (that’s unprecedented here with the dry weather), nitrogen 1.47% (cut-off is about 1.65), screenings 7.3%, germination 100%. I'm quite pleased given the year. Some farmers are getting 20, 30, 40% screenings. That’s no use.”
Vic: Remind us about nitrogen and end-use.
Scott: “For single malt you want low nitrogen. You want the starch; there’s enough enzymes in 100% malt. High nitrogen is for grain distilling, so you need more enzymes to break down other cereals.”
A way of life
Shelly: You called farming a way of life.
Scott: “It is a way of life…you don’t do it to make a fortune. The farmhouse is the centre—where you meet people and decisions get made.”
Shelly: Do you drink whisky yourself?
Scott (laughing): “No, I don’t drink whisky. I’d rather prefer a beer. A lot of farmers are the same. But barley for malt is more than a commodity to me. As soon as a load goes, I'm straight into the results—nitrogen, screenings, germination.
It’s a way of life here. Seeing your crops growing…you get a boost from that. I wouldn’t do anything else.”
The future of the farm
Like so many farmers, and after 40 years working the fields, Scott still loves what he does. He may not drink whisky, but he’s a proud member of the industry.
Before we left, Scott told us that he wasn’t sure about the future of the century-old family farm. He doesn’t have a family himself, and his siblings aren’t interested in taking over the trade.
As we said our goodbyes, he invited us back in July to see how the winter barley turned out…and we’ll gladly take him up on it.
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