Our Farm
Edinvale Farms was started by the firm’s founders Michael and Susan Gibson in the 1970’s. Edinvale is situated between 500 and 800 feet above the Moray Firth in the Highlands of Scotland; originally it was stocked with a pedigree fold of Highland cattle for the show ring and pedigree market only.
As the business grew Beef Shorthorns were introduced to utilise the cattle not suitable for pedigree breeding. The whole business model at this time was geared towards exports where demand was high. Edinvale exported to some 13 countries in 3 continents. We also won some 10 major championships with our cattle including the champion and reserve at The Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh. This growth led to us taking on more land and today we have some 500 cattle on nearly 1000 acres of upper Moray.
Despite never having the disease BSE or mad cow disease and their subsequent restrictions brought an end to our export business and we had to look for alternatives. Macbeth’s, our family owned company expanded to accommodate the spare cattle and as a result of the increased focus on beef the Aberdeen Angus was introduced as a terminal sire to ensure the quality of the beef going through it. Today our breeding cattle are still very important to us as we breed all our own herd replacements; we also supply a number of farmers with their breeding cattle now mainly Highland crossed with the Beef Shorthorn. To do this we still retain our pure herd of Highland cattle which is quite an attraction to summer visitors.
Michael Gibson spent 6 years on the Board of the newly formed Food Standards Agency and this gave a unique insight into the requirements, expectations and aspirations of consumers. We hope that the control over our cattle from their conception to their sale from Macbeth’s gives our customers a special assurance that is unrivalled. The cattle are all reared in the same way, their ultimate destination making no difference, thus they are not forced with high grain diets nor given any dietary stimulants or feed additives.
All our cattle are fed on grass diets with supplementation from farm sourced feeds such as turnips, barley or sugar beet. The health of our animals is fundamental and is a major selling point for our breeding cattle; thus it follows that our cattle for Macbeths should be just as healthy. As all our cattle are born on the farm we know and understand them very well and a health plan has been developed over many years. It never involves the use of antibiotics but rather balances mineral and vitamin requirements with a good programme for dealing with grassland parasites such as worms.
We hope this keeps our animals in the peak of health and our vet reviews the situation annually. Moray is a healthy county famed for its production of high quality cattle. They live overlooking the Moray Firth and the Cairngorm mountains in high grass pastures, they are sheltered from the worst of the winter storms but are from hardy breeds that take a little bad weather in their stride. We hope that our beef provides a pleasure that can only be enhanced by fine wine and good company.