Caroline Millar, The Hideaway, Balkello Farm, Dundee

Caroline and Ross Millar farm 650 acres with Ross’ parents, Bill and Elizabeth. The main farm enterprise comprises two units, Balkello (principally arable, growing malting barley, wheat and oilseed rape) and the hill farm, North Balluderon. The family runs 85 suckler cows, producing Simmental cross calves which are finished on farm. They also run 250 ewes, principally Mules. Land is also let out for growing potatoes and beans.

More recently a farm diversification saw Caroline and her husband convert an old derelict bothy into a luxury romantic holiday home retreat. ‘The Hideaway’ is designed for couples and provides the ultimate peaceful and private location for spending time alone. As well as the usual four star tourist accommodation facilities, The Hideaway has a four poster bed, sauna, double Jacuzzi and wood burning stove. Self-catering occupancy averages for Scotland are around 50% but the Hideaway has achieved an annual average of 80% since it opened in 2005. Although the arable and livestock units continue to be the main enterprises on the farm, ‘The Hideaway’ brings in useful extra income and presents excellent growth potential for the family business. Additional Hideaways are being considered together with the potential to undertake marketing on behalf of other rural tourism developments which are currently underperforming both in terms of occupancy and financial targets.

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Caroline Millar, a livestock farmer in Scotland, has diversified into running self-catering holiday homes. The first of which is The Hideaway, Balkello Farm, Dundee

The Millars participated in the pilot project ‘Developing the next generation of business leaders’, which involved a series of practical business planning workshops provided by the Scottish Agriculture College (SAC) and New Edge Management, plus the undertaking of a land-business review. This produced training and development plans aimed at supporting a sustainable and competitive future for their businesses. Several families also had one to one mentoring sessions to support the process, and ensure the changes being put in place would be for the long term.

Involvement in the project has led to an investment in I.T. systems and training in order to improve management accounts information in the business. It is hoped that this will lead to real time performance appraisal of each sector of the business.

The Millars reported that one of the most beneficial aspects of the project was adopting a more structured approach to family members communicating about the business. Caroline said: “When you are in your 30s with young children it focuses your mind on the future. The priority for us was to take a look at the best way forward for the business in a new agricultural economic environment.”

She added: “While we all get on very well and work together on the farm, how often do you make time to sit down together to talk about the future? The Lantra project allowed us to do that.”

The project run by Lantra Sector Skills Council, in collaboration with the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs and NFU Scotland, has been deemed a great success, and the feedback and outcomes from the pilot will be shared with the Scottish Government who are looking at ways to support new entrants and succession planning in agriculture.

The project, part funded by the European Social Fund Objective 3, will also be used to develop a business planning and succession planning tool for rural businesses.

Caroline has since become a Lantra Skills Ambassador and helped Lantra organise a confidence building seminar at which 45 businesswomen from rural enterprises attended. The business women from across East Central Scotland shared ideas and experiences, and explored the opportunities that exist for women in modern rural industries.

Caroline said: “There are an abundance of opportunities for employment and business development, it just often takes a bit of creative thinking.”

As well as confidence building workshops with Vince Holley of Get Real Training, there were presentations from John Doddie of the Scottish Government Agriculture and Rural Development division and NFU Scotland President Jim McLaren.