Next year will mark 50 years of farming operations by the Wilson family, who are based near Tain, Ross-shire. Allan and his wife, Alyson, rented just under 30ha in 1976 and added another 12ha when they purchased some neighbouring ground.
To supplement the farm’s income, Allan started working with a local lime spreading contractor, eventually taking over the round when they retired.
Alyson explains that Allan was quick to recognise gaps in the local market. “There was no one in the area cutting hedges, so he went out and purchased a trimmer. He also saw the opportunities with forage harvesting and purchased one of the first self-propelled machines in the region to start working on the local dairy farms.”
Constant reinvestment and a keen eye on what customers would need in the coming years saw Allan and Alyson grow the business to a full stubble-to-stubble enterprise.
While dairying has dwindled near the Wilsons, it has been replaced with producing hay and haylage for different markets, with a Kongskilde trailed forager handling the smaller area of clamp forage work.
The focus of the business has shifted to arable operations, with more than 1,600ha of sowing done each year using a Väderstad Spirit and two Lemken Solitair drills, with an additional 400ha of oilseed rape established with a He-Va seven-leg subsoiler and small seed applicator that the company built themselves. These are followed up with two Claas Lexion combine harvesters.
The next generation
Allan and Alyson’s son, Stuart, has been part of the business for as long as he can remember, joining full-time when he turned 16 in 1993. He says he shares his parents’ desire to do the best job possible for customers, while also using technology to ease the administrative workload of running a substantial contracting firm.
“We’re lucky to have a loyal customer base,” he explains. “We’ve been working on some farms for three generations now, and that continued support and growth have come from word of mouth.
“I’m a big believer that farmers come to contractors not because they can’t do something, but because contractors have the machinery and technology to do it better. We’re not just there to solve a problem in the short term; it’s about building long-term working relationships.”
This extends not just to the quality of work done, but also taking on an advisory role where required. The company still spreads a significant amount of lime and has incorporated SOYL soil testing into its offering to provide exact recommendations to the customer, as well as facilitating the ordering and spreading of the product.
From 2009, Stuart found himself taking on more responsibility within the company when Allan was diagnosed with cancer, a disease that reoccurred and sadly took Allan’s life in November 2022.
Stuart notes that 2023 was a difficult year, as the family came to terms with the loss of Allan while also continuing to run the business.
“It’s been tough. Those relationships we’ve built up with customers meant they worked with us,” Stuart says. “Then there was the hard work of the staff, who helped me keep everything running smoothly.”
While more owner/operators are brought in during harvest, the business currently employs six full-time operators, running on John Deere tractors (a 6R 250, two 6R 215s, a 6196 and two 6175s), all supplied by Netherton Tractors.
“We tend to purchase new machinery, but will opt for good-quality second-hand and ex-demonstration units when the price is right,” Stuart says.
“It’s also important to us that we support local dealerships, so we work closely with Ravenhill Tractors, as well as Sellars. If we don’t use them, we risk losing them, and it’s vital to have reliable support nearby to keep us running.”
No fixed replacement policy is in place. Instead, any purchases are balanced against the maintenance costs. Stuart and Alyson agree that the team are all mechanically minded, continuing an ethos that Allan instilled into the business, so a lot of the maintenance and repairs are done on site where possible.
Integrating technology
Investments in software and technology were primarily to ease the administrative burden and to ensure profitability. Wilson Contracting has used Farmplan for its accounting since the 1990s, enabling them to monitor exact costs in real time and make informed decisions about purchasing and operations.
Adding to this, Stuart was an early adopter of the AgDrive system – a phone-based service that enables jobs to be created, sent to the relevant operator and marked as complete, all but eliminating timesheets and job-related paperwork.
“It’s made a huge difference to the day-to-day running of the business,” Stuart explains. “I’m not in a position to run things from the office; I have to be on the tractor as well, so being able to see the progress of work or send tasks to the team without constant phone calls or texts has made everything run smoother.”
All the mainline kit is fitted with GPS and section control, and because they exclusively use John Deere tractors, Stuart takes advantage of the telematics package, enabling him to see when machines leave the yard and return, without having to always be on site.
Because of the alignment with John Deere and Claas, he is able to monitor the two combines through the system.
Looking ahead, Stuart says they are continuing to integrate variable rate into their offering, which has been part of the business since 1998. This is already in place for fertiliser applications and one large customer is using variable-rate seeding across a large area.
“I hope that the technology offering will make agriculture more appealing to the next generation,” he says. “Like everyone, we struggle to find new staff to either take the place of someone who is retiring, or to expand the business at the pace we would like to.”