“To plough and sow, to reap and mow, my father bred me early, o.”
ROBERT BURNS
In 1921 Charles and Gilbert (Uncle Bert) Mackenzie purchased Cullisse Farm at Nigg, having previously farmed with their father, Alexander, at Bindal by Portmahomack at the other end of the Fearn peninsula. Charles and Bert farmed Cullisse, Old Shandwick and Broomton farms together for over 50 years, growing oats, barley, potatoes and turnips, as well as rearing sheep and building up a prize winning herd of pedigree Aberdeen Angus Cattle, with family stud names such as Blackbird, Betty Black and Gyspy Fairy, which became world renowned.
Charles and Isobel’s sons, Kenneth and Gregor, inherited the farms in 1974, farming together until 1995 when Gregor, along with his wife Liz and their young family, emigrated to New Zealand to farm in North Canterbury on the South Island.
Kenneth and Elizabeth and their sons – Peter, Robert and Kenneth – now farm Cullisse, Cadboll and Old Shandwick as a family partnership. Kenneth (Snr) and Peter are the day-to-day farmers, taking care of the planting, growing, harvesting and marketing of their crops – which include winter and spring barley (for malting), wheat, oilseed rape (for Robert) and potatoes (for Brunton Farms) - and the rearing of their herd of Limousin/Angus cross suckler cows (the pedigree herd having been sold in the 1980’s).