SMOKO STORIES - Anna Mackinnon

“I’m really fortunate that the estate and the family who run it are super passionate about farming and educating young people”. 

From a young age, Anna Mackinnon always knew she didn’t want to work in an office. After graduating from university in 2017 Anna has embarked on an agricultural journey that has helped her realise what ambitions and goals she would like to achieve in the future. Here, in her own words, Anna shares her story about the love she carries for her homeland in Scotland and the strong desire she has to educate the next generation on how their food is produced. 

FF. Where did your farming journey begin?

AM. I grew up on a large hill farm in Perth which my dad manages. Dad has been there since the age of 18 and started off in a student position. He decided to leave for a couple of years before coming back and remaining there ever since and has received his long service medal for being with the estate for 43 years. So my brother Ben and I have just been born and bred there. My mum was from the local town and she met my dad at a young farmers event. Mum quickly fell in love with the lifestyle too and soon got involved in the lambing and general farm jobs before they got married and had us kids.

FF. What is the current system you are running on that farm?

AM. We have 1600 breeding Scottish blackface ewes on the farm I grew up on. My brother still works there and my dad manages it therefore, they work together running that one holding. The estate is split over two hefts with my dad looking after one and my brother Ben looking after the other. The single scanned ewes are all lambed in breeding hill parks and the twins lamb in fields before the lambs come down to where I am based now on another low ground estate roughly 40 minutes away, for the summer and stay through the winter months. Therefore, the estate my dad is on and the estate that I now work on are owned by the same family known as Cadogan Estates.  

The estate where I am based has arable, cattle, sheep and sporting enterprises compared to the estate my dad and brother work on which is a hill farm with grouse moor, hydro schemes and holiday accommodation. The two systems work well together. I took on this job role four years ago. Prior to me taking the job the farm was already used for wintering, meaning the ewes weren’t here full time. It began to get too much for my dad and my brother to be running essentially over 2000 ewes between two places. They decided they needed to take someone else on and I was offered the job down here. The ewes which were taken on at this estate became a permanent feature. I am now running 650 ewes which are mules and beltex cross ewes. I’m contracted as a shepherd but I am responsible for the daily management. My dad is essentially still my line manager, which has its perks but also not at the same time. Although it’s not our family farm, it’s very much our family which is farming it. We all work as if it were our own.

FF. What was your education route of choice? Did you go to university?

AM. I was always involved and in love with farming when I was young as most rural girls are; however, my brother who is four years older than me instantly took on the role of being more involved than I was. I lost interest in the farm when I hit my teenage years. Other interests grew such as looking at event planning or business management. After school I decided to go and do rural business management in my first year at what's now known as SRUC. My parents were very encouraging for me to try and do something like that, not necessarily to get me away from farming but to make sure I had lots of options. I think in their head if I just went and did agriculture I would basically be going there for a piss up (laughter). But honestly, the two courses were very similar. I did the full year and I got my HNC in rural business but it wasn’t really what I was interested in. I’m not keen on the accounts or paperwork side of farming. Obviously to a certain knowledge I have to be, however, numbers are not where I thrive. So I decided to change to the agricultural course for my second and third year and completed my degree in that. I had a great time and learnt so much. What I like to say is it’s not what you learn, it’s who you meet. The networking is just incredible. The friends you go with and the opportunities you get to experience with your lecturers and guest lecturers always lead you to future opportunities. I still keep in touch with a lot of my college friends now after completing my qualifications. Looking back I went through a stage where I wished I’d gone to university and done something completely different so that I had more skills with the aim to always come back to farming; however, soon realised I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it.

FF. What did you decide to do next? Did you come straight back to the family business once you graduated? 

AM. I was self employed for roughly two years. Quite a lot of the group I was at college with went away travelling, but most of them were going to work on machinery and big tractor farms. Travelling just wasn’t at the time what I wanted to do. I’m such a home person. I wanted to work as soon as I finished university. Straight away I started picking up different bits of work locally whilst still living at home. I did the occasional work at home also but tried to branch out for different work experiences. One of the places that I worked had three different farms which all had different systems. I also remember working at a pedigree texel lambing job. My aim was to get as much experience in different  systems as I could, all of which has been invaluable to me. Getting out and working for different people resulted in me learning a huge amount. The timing of my current job lined up with when the COVID pandemic kicked off and I thought at that point I was ready to move from home and settle somewhere myself and have my own space. It was a good opportunity not to miss.

FF. Could you tell us more about why you have the pedigree Scottish blackface breed?

AM. The farm at home, Cadogan Estate, previous to when my dad started working there, always had blackie sheep. It’s just the breed that is suited to that type of farming system. There isn’t another sheep that will thrive up there. Don’t get me wrong there is a lot of park land also but to get to the actual top of the farm and the full range of the hill, Scottish Blackfaces are basically the only breed in this area that suits that system. We also have the pedigree showing side of the breed. Obviously the sheep that are getting shown through the summer months and sold for big money aren’t necessarily the ones in the high heights of the hills. There is a split. You need the hill sheep to produce the progeny of the show sheep and you tend to see a certain spark in them when they are young lambs which leads to you keeping them very close to home. However, a lot of our show team once the season has finished, will get kicked back out to the hill with the rest of the flock instead of being pampered indoors. From a teeny tiny little girl, I have always been around the showing rings which have ruled our summer's most of our childhood and lifetime. Tup sales in October means every weekend in September involves us touring around Scotland looking at the different rams which are available for sale that year. It’s such a social occasion bringing everyone together. We’ve been lucky to have had some good prices over the years with £10,000 being our top price back in 2016. But that's resulted from years and years of breeding. It’s not financially beneficial to us as the money always goes back to the estate, but it's a good recognition of hard work, stockmanship and good breeding. The estate appreciates that and is very thankful. They like to see us doing well. From local shows this year we have so far won male champion, reserve overall champion and our next show is a week on Saturday which is our biggest show of the year, Perth show. 

I’ve also started Judging and was asked to do my first judging role in Northern Ireland at the start of 2023. It was a charity stockjudging event which was the first one that had been run for them. There’s a strong link between Scotland and Ireland when it comes to the black faced sheep breed. I had no idea what to expect but the Irish as we all know are very hospitable and it was good fun. When we turned up at the event I was surprised as there were roughly 400 people there. For my first judging it felt very much like being thrown in at the deep end. They successfully raised £28,000 that evening which was split between the Air ambulance and Autism charities which was incredible. Even though everyone knows me as Anna Mackinnon and that I’m Archie’s daughter, it allowed me to branch out on my own; however, dad was definitely keeping an eye by watching the event being streamed online. That following summer I was asked to judge a local show, Angus show, which I didn’t realise until afterwards turned out to be the first show my brother had judged and also my dads first show as well. So that was quite nice. I’ve also judged back in February this year, this time in Southern Ireland, at an in lamb female sale. The ewe I gave champion to went on to top the sale. 

2022 - Champion Shearling. Sold for £5000.

FF. Another string to your bow is your Cheferdess instagram account. Where did that idea come from and what are you hoping to achieve with it?

AM. I started the Cheferdess account in 2021. It was something that I had been wanting to do for a while but never had the confidence to actually do it. With my job role here at the estate I see the process right the way through from the birth of the lambs through to them leaving the farm. I’ve grown up and been involved in the farm my whole life and I always appreciated local produce, but actually seeing it from the beginning and being involved in that process right the way through made me realise, wow, that is something I think everyone else should experience or understand. That was my starting point. I wanted to help narrow the knowledge gap of where people's food actually comes from. I’m very aware of the privilege of growing up in the lifestyle that I have, that I have been lucky enough to have never actually bought lamb in my life. It’s a meat I have probably taken for granted my whole life. Therefore, I wanted to try and educate people on where it comes from, what's involved in producing it and a big thing I am trying to push is how to utilise the whole animal as opposed to just your popular cuts. A lot of people’s responses to not buying the meat is that they can’t afford to buy British or Scottish or from a butcher rather than a supermarket. However, they just see the popular cuts like your steaks and roasts without realising that there is so much more choice available. It’s also about making cuts last a bit longer. I’m very aware I am not feeding a family of four myself but I think there are ways to help reduce waste which is another area of the food industry I am passionate about. 

The aim of Cheferdess is to showcase recipes that people could have a go at whilst keeping it at a level where some recipes are easy and others are a little bit fancier, but always trying to do them seasonally. I’m so lucky that within ten miles of where I live there are four or five farm shops. Perthshire is incredible for local vegetables, meat and even berries. Creating the Cheferdess page has led me to doing a Christmas cooking demonstration at my local village hall. I have also done evenings for the women's rural group whereby we made canapes which ended up being good fun. This summer I have been asked to do a cookery demonstration at a local show’s food hall. I said yes straight away as it’s something I have always wanted to do and I don’t want to turn these opportunities down.  It’s now a case of trying to work out all the logistics as that is a big step up compared to doing a demonstration in my local village hall.

FF. Am I right in thinking your mum’s a very good cook?

AM. My mum is a chef, yes. She actually went and trained after we kids started school. She was very successful in what she did. Mum worked in country houses, hotels and restaurants. In the last ten years or so she has taken a step back from the chaos of professional kitchens and does more private dinner parties and shoot parties. Mum also works for the owners of the estate three days a week running their kitchen. She’s a great cook and actually hates it when people say to me I get the cooking skills from her because she worked really hard when we were growing up and was always away at family meal times, so cooking for my brother and my dad was essentially my job. Mum thinks that always sounds terrible but I don’t ever begrudge her for it. I used to pretend I was sick from school so that I could go to work with her and then just get placed in a corner of a kitchen and watch her. Mum’s first job after qualifying was an apprenticeship at a huge stately home very much like Downton Abbey, very upstairs, downstairs kind of vibe. I used to come home from school and not really know what to cook for tea and this was pre mobile phones. I used to phone the reception of the country house and ask for my mum before they cottoned on to it. Initially they would put me through thinking it was an emergency and my mum would shout at me because she was mortified saying I can’t believe I’m ringing in the middle of dinner service. I soon learnt to ask for Susie in the kitchen instead.

FF. You now also volunteer to help educate children about food production. Did the Cheferdess profile lead you to this volunteering role? 

AM. No it didn’t. I reached out as it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. So I took a notion and signed up to volunteer for the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) as a classroom speaker. They offer either on farm visits or can send people into classrooms to talk to kids. Understandably I had to go through all the right checks first and met with the local coordinator for my area. The group members can volunteer which events they are available to attend. I did my first event back in May this year and I absolutely loved it. I’ve always really enjoyed  being around children and the education part of it is something quite new to me. I’ve very much surprised myself because again I didn’t think I would be very confident to do it. Previous to that, I also volunteer for Scotland's Regional Moorland Groups, which is more on the shooting side of the industry. They run a programme called ‘Estates that educate’ which gives primary and secondary school children the opportunity to learn on the estates all the rural jobs which are available which again is brilliant. It’s a relatively new initiative. The sense of community in Perthshire and working on an estate is incredible. Don’t get me wrong I’ve put myself forward, but the opportunities I have got from working on the estate is amazing.

FF. That sounds like the Scottish education system is very keen for children to know about where their food comes from and that you have a strong connection between the education system and agriculture?

AM. It’s brilliant. Don’t get me wrong, we have to deal with a lot of backlash from people who seem to think  farming and gamekeeping are the absolute pits of society; however, most people genuinely are in awe of it. There is a lot of support, especially in recent years, there has been a shift in teachers and parents perspectives. When I was in fourth year of school we had  our career advisor talks and when asked what I wanted to do when I left school I told them I wasn’t very sure but I knew I didn’t want to work in an office. Their response was for me to go to university and get a degree because if you have a degree you can do anything you want. There seems to be a good focus on teaching life skills now and getting children out of the classroom as well as teaching academic skills compared to ten years ago when I was in school. I’m really fortunate that the estate, and the family and management who run it are super passionate about sustainable farming and educating young people.

Two years ago I had a bit of a wobble. The job role was all still very new. I was working and learning so much that I got myself into a bit of a rut and I thought my job was stopping me from having a life. I got so much responsibility so young, which I wanted, don't get me wrong, but it took a while once we came out of lockdown to realise that I can’t just nip away from the farm. I was restricted in what I was doing and was questioning if I should be doing something else. I decided to look around at other jobs, but I really had no idea what it was that I wanted to do. I was in such a mental funk that I would have just done anything other than farming. However, I had a bit of a perspective shift and decided that I wasn’t ready to quit shepherding but that I wanted to do something that would give me an additional purpose. That’s when I tried to do a bit more with my Cheferdess instagram account and planted seeds about the educational side of things with the estate. If you don’t ask then you honestly don’t get. I thought that because I worked full time that I wouldn’t be able to go and do the educational school visits as well. I remember being really nervous asking if it would be ok for me to go off farm to do them. They thought it was brilliant and really encouraged me to go and do it. I’m very open in the fact that I know shepherding will not be what I want to do long term. Don’t get me wrong there are plenty of amazing women out there that do make it work for them, but I just don’t want to be shepherding for the rest of my life. It’s a case of finding the right balance for me to still be active on the farm whilst also grabbing these opportunities to help educate where possible. The estate loves the fact that it’s very much a family affair with my dad, mum, brother and I, but they are also very keen and encouraging for me to do both sides. I’m very aware that because the farm isn’t ours, I want to build myself a portfolio of skills that I can fall back on or use in the future if anything was to change. Thankfully at the moment this setup allows me to do that.

FF. Out of curiosity, what is your favourite meal to cook?

AM. I’m really into classic, not too fussy sharing food. A selection of meats and a couple of different sides. I love summertime when you have loads of different salads. I love to cook for other people. I’m incapable of cooking for one. I love hosting, from getting the house organised, setting the table, cooking and all the fun that follows. I love the way food brings people together.

FF. Who has been your biggest inspiration through your farming journey so far?

AM. Umm, I wouldn't say there is any one person. I take inspiration from everyone I work with. Obviously my dad is an inspiration as the head of where it all started with my farming journey. What he has achieved over the years is incredible and he’ll be the first one to remind me how hard he has had to work. Watching the way he is with his livestock and his dogs and more recently working alongside my brother and seeing them work together is inspiring. 

When I went self-employed I was offered a day's work at my first place as the original person couldn’t make it. Brian Simpson was the person I worked for, he is a shearer and a contract shepherd and I ended up working with him for two years. Brian was so patient in a way that I was learning so much but also he would give me a bollocking if I needed it. He had a different style of working compared to my brother and my dad which I had been used to. I would never criticise my dad for the hard work he has given to the estate over the years, I just look back and realise, for a young impressionable person starting in agriculture, it was refreshing to see someone be able to work long hours on a farm and also find the balance to be heavily involved in family life too as Brian was newly married with a baby when I started working there. Just like myself, both dad and Brian have a great passion for their jobs, I just think as younger farmers we’ve come to learn that we don’t want to live to work, we want to work to live. More recently, Zoe Colvile, The Chief Shepherdess off Instagram is also an inspiration to me. Not that I actually know her but I think she is great. She’s really open about the industry with no frills.

FF. What would you say has been your greatest achievement so far in your farming story?

AM. Probably I would say the last six months of finding that balance. But then I guess, looking back when I took over this estate job, I look at the scanning percentage of the ewes back then compared to where we are now. Because the sheep were run across the two farms they just weren’t the best quality of ewe. They were up and down the road all the time.  You can really tell when livestock have a home. There were 400-500 and what I am trying to basically say is you can’t run a texel ewe on a hill farm. When I first came here I wanted to increase the scanning percentage. The previous flock were scanning roughly 140% and I also wanted to look at changing the breed. We now sit at 650 ewes and that's hopefully going to be increasing in the next year. The scanning percentage is now averaging 180% and the overall quality of the ewes and lambs is far increased. This isn’t all my work as I obviously get help from my brother and my dad but I would say a lot of the decisions that I have dug my heels in on, I have won. The estate is very trusting in allowing us to make these changes where we feel are needed as long as we are not making any large financial changes without their say so. I was very harsh on culling and trying to keep livestock that were here young. I started buying in mule ewe lambs and crossing those with a Beltex and kept the first cross females. Previously all the lambs were fattened either on kale or on pellets. However, I decided the first year I was here when we were pretty short on grass to sell them as store instead, which was a massive no no here as it had never been done before. I was told you can’t do that by my dad and not the estate. It worked out that year the sheep and lamb trade just blew out of the water and I was getting lambs off their mums at a really good price. It couldn’t have worked out better in my favour for something that I had wanted to do but had resistance against. Ever since then we haven’t had a bad year however, this year I am trying to fatten more as we have more grass availability. So yeah, getting the stock up to that standard has been a great achievement.

But my personal development in the past six months, I have really surprised myself in how confident I have become. I’ve never not been a confident person, but I think growing up in this farming and showing world, that my diverse upbringing has allowed me to just put myself out there.

FF. What advice would you give to someone looking to start a career in agriculture?

AM. Don’t be so concerned about what other people are doing and the stages they are at. Have an idea of what your own goals are. I look back to when I was leaving school or at university and I probably thought I was already knowledgeable and had everything figured out but I was actually still a baby and wouldn’t listen to anyone. I’d say don’t get caught up listening to what others are doing. Be your own person. You get so focussed on what other people think of you that it’s actually none of their business. You can’t control other people's opinions. You just really need to get your head down and work hard, ask questions and be respectful. 

I actually have a young girl who has been working with me during the school holidays called Erin. Erin is 13 years old and she did a full two week lambing season with me this year. She started as a wee girl and I actually get quite emotional looking back because I was documenting her journey daily. Erin left as a young lady after the two week lambing period. I knew Erin’s parents through young farmers and her dad used to always joke that he would send the girls up to me for work experience. This year I got the call from him to ask if it would be OK and I am so glad I said yes because this year's lambing season was horrendous. Erin did all of the jobs which were so time consuming and no one else particularly likes to do but Erin absolutely loved it. At the end of the lambing period I asked her what she wanted to do when she left school and she told me she wasn’t sure but knew she definitely didn’t want to work in an office. It was like deja vu. Erin already had her own wee flock of sheep before she started working with me but has since gained three pet lambs after her lambing season with me came to an end. She is doing an incredible job. It’s usually just me and my dad at lambing time and it can get quite tense when things aren’t going right, but Erin brought everyone back together. Everything just felt more respectful. She was that bright little light we all needed and she kept everyone upbeat. It’s probably something I would say to other farmers that it’s really important that if you get an opportunity like that, taking someone young on, do it because it’s a great experience for everyone.

FF. We are all aware that looking after our mental health is important, especially in the agricultural industry. What do you do to look after your mental health if you are having a bad day?

AM. I try to sit in my discomfort. If I am having a bad day or going through a bad spell, I try to allow myself to be sad or unhappy and then work through it rather than the mentality of keeping yourself busy. Keeping busy for me personally is terrible advice because it will catch you at some point so you're better to sit in the discomfort and try to understand why you feel the way you feel, which can be difficult to answer most of the time. I have made a conscious effort to try and do this more in the past 12 months. I also like running and I go to the gym. I will also try and cook something nice if I am feeling like crap but again that’s something that takes a lot of thought so if I’m not in a good headspace anyway that’s probably the last thing I want to be doing. I’ve realised that I just need to be open with people. If you're not having a good day just say it. I’m really lucky that I have a very good support system with my two best friends and my brother and we bash conversations out often. Family friends of mine have a lifestyle coaching business called And. They have actually been a big inspiration to me as well. They coach people on adding value to their lives. Their tag line is ‘own your mind, own your life’. I have been to a couple of their workshops but again it’s something that you need to be in the right mindset for. I actually went to one of their workshops right in the middle of lambing time which you would never even have thought would be an option but they asked me to go along . I thought to myself that things were under control on the farm, what was the worst that could happen. So I went. Just hearing other people's perspectives on things is sometimes all you need and I’m glad I went.

FF. What is the one item you could not farm without?

AM. Most people who know me will probably know the answer to this. Boss. My dog, or even just the dogs in general. Boss was my first dog which I got as an eight week old pup. He was the first dog I purchased myself. I had a dog from my dad for my 21st birthday which was his old dog that had retired from the hill but still had quite a lot of life left in him. I got Boss as a puppy to train on from him. It was so impulsive and my brother was so mad at me as he was certain it was going to go wrong. Again it turned out to be one of those things that fell in my favour as he worked from such a young age and he’s been everything I could have ever asked for and more. However, I soon learnt you should always keep one dog coming on at all times just in case something was to happen such as in Boss’s case going missing for eight days and subsequently losing a leg. I ended up up shit creek without a paddle for a little while but Brian who I told you about earlier, kindly let me use one of his dogs while Boss was recovering through that summer and right through to lambing time. Boss’s accident corresponded  with the wobble that I had too. I was so miserable going out to work without him by my side. He had been there from the very beginning and it just felt so weird and all of a sudden felt like I had lost my limbs. I couldn’t do half the stuff I was so used to doing with him. I’d lost all my independence. I pride myself on working by myself, that I can do it. Boss would herd the sheep, would fill the race, he would do everything. I just got so lucky with him. It wasn’t that I am particularly talented in training sheepdogs either, he just had a huge amount of natural ability. I completely hated not having him. The vets told me he would never work again so that was obviously the end of the world. Boss however, defined all odds and still comes out to work today. He doesn’t work on the hill but he gets a couple of hours a day to help me where needed which is enough just to keep him happy and not hate life. In general though, I wouldn’t want to do this job without the dogs. The connection and the consistency of having them there. Going back to our mental health discussion, I could go all week without seeing anyone. Or I could go a full day without speaking to another human being . At certain times of the year, I wouldn’t even think twice about it until I started going out and about more and seeing people, that I realised I hadn’t opened my mouth all day. But the dogs are always there as a consistency that I won’t get anywhere else. 

FF. If you're having a bad day when you're working on your own in the sheep yards, what song would you instantly play to get you in the frame of mind to get the job done?

AM. Keeping your head up by Birdy. (A very quick response from Anna therefore, obviously a favourite).

FF. Last question. If you could explain it in one sentence, why farming?

AM. It’s the sense of community that I don’t think you’ll get anywhere else. You are so in tuned and it really is ingrained into you. You are in tune with the weather, your surroundings and it sounds really cringy but you are so connected on a deeper level by what you are doing. For example if I wake up in the morning and it’s pouring with rain I get frustrated compared to when I wake up and the weather is absolutely glorious. Instantly the day is already better. It’s really hard to explain why but it’s something that I think is attuned to who we are. We are dealing with the seasons on a yearly basis and we surprise ourselves in how strong we can be both mentally and physically. We have to push past the tough days because at the end of the day there’s a bigger picture.