By Dr. Dave Parish, GWCT Senior Researcher
Hello and welcome to another Annual Report of our activities at Auchnerran. What a challenging year it has been! Significant snowfall in May and the dry spring and summer that followed posed problems for both the farm (page 7) with early lamb losses higher than normal, and perhaps some of our resident wildlife with wader numbers down slightly, and coincided with an unexpected jump in the rate of badger predation on some of our breeding waders (page 13), which contributed to a poor year for chick production.
That said, farm output overall was maintained at a good level with a high lambing rate and the team has been as busy as ever and, I’m delighted to say, we were able to start welcoming visitors to the farm again. Not that 2021 could be called a normal year as COVID-19 restrictions were still in place for much of the time, but we were able to host a few key meetings (page 12).
Auchnerran is coming out of the COVID-19 crisis stronger than ever, with significant changes underway in 2022. We have a new management structure and a larger team including new staff, as well as some exciting new projects.
Download Report →