Last week we told how Crocketford’s John McCulloch had become a skilled stockman by the age of 15, having helped his dad George and mum Maureen win the Shorthorn championship at the Great Yorkshire Show at Harrogate in 2015.
The family, which had Galloway and south Ayrshire roots – his grannie hailed from Barholm at Carsluith – were still in Perthshire at that time but after a visit to Australia the following year everything changed and in 2017 John’s parents moved to a farm in Yorkshire.
John took the decision to plough his own furrow and aged 17 headed for a job at Chapleton Farm near the Haugh of Urr, his prospects clarified thanks to a chance meeting at the October bull sale at Stirling the previous October.
“The February and October sales are big focal points of the farming year,” John explains.
“I had known Donald Biggar quite well because he also had a shorthorn herd.
“I spoke with him at the sale and he asked if I would like to come and do a student placement and I agreed.
“He was a real mentor for me and I was privileged to call him that.
“He was a very professional man who did a lot for the industry.
“I worked with his stockman Robert Grierson who was also held in high regard in the industry.
“It was a great opportunity for me and I worked there from February to summer 2017.
“Robert Graham at Irelandton, president of Stewartry Young Farmers, he was a great help as well.
“He was always at the end of the phone for advice on how to run committee meetings and get things done.”
At Chapelton, John tells me, his interest and knowledge of pedigree cattle developed through Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society and Beef Shorthorn Cattle Society youth development programmes, which he had joined in 2013 at the age of 14.
“In July 2017 I took part in the World Aberdeen Angus Forum competition focused around the Royal Highland Show which involved speech making, stock judging, preparing cattle for show, showing cattle and judging.
“There were teams from the UK, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Canada – all over the world – and I was the highest placed individual from the UK to take part.
“I was privileged to meet some like-minded people from these different countries.
“Up to that point I had taken part in a lot of competitions – but this was the first time I had competed at a global level.
“You are never really sure of your skill level and it was good for my self confidence.”
John, who is still only 23, remembers well his early difficulties of living on his own, away from his parents, following their move to England.
Another shift came in August 2017, when he left Chapelton and moved to be stockman at Auchengibbert, Crocketford, with G Barbour and Co.
“I had the choice of moving to Yorkshire or doing my own thing, which is what I decided to do,” he explains simply.
“I was only 17 and there were days when I wished I had been at home – it was totally outside my comfort zone.
“Moving to a new place and a new area was difficult to get my head around.
“It was a huge thing for us – my parents are still in Yorkshire, managing a beef shorthorn herd at Thirsk.
“I keep telling my dad he should go to the races!
“They are enjoying it down in Yorkshire working with the Upsall herd.
“They have been showing pedigree cattle for six years and last year sold a pedigree bull for 25,000 guineas at Stirling.
“My mum and I had to bring the bull out because my dad was very ill with pneumonia.”
After doing an NC and an HNC in agriculture at Oatridge College in West Lothian, John recalls how in 2019 he decided to go to Edinburgh for his HND – a big change which quickly led to involvement in the political world.
“Aye, it was quite a culture shock,” he laughs.
“When I came home at weekends to peaceful surroundings it was quite a difference from the middle of the Meadows in Edinburgh.
“As much as I enjoyed the night life, to be honest I preferred the quiet, out of the city, and being around the cattle.
“We shared the campus and facilities with Edinburgh University and in March 2020 a student brought forward a motion to ban the sale of beef dishes from the university’s cafeterias.
“We ate there too so any ban would affect us as well.
“We were against it as a group – and wrote a letter to the vice-principal of the university and the student, putting forward the sustainable credentials of Scottish beef.
“We got all the agriculture students to sign their support for this letter and at 1am there we were in our student accommodation sending it out to all the Scottish agricultural agencies by email.
“We didn’t know what the response would be but every one of them replied with support.
“And the Edinburgh students voted by 58-42 per cent not to ban beef from the university cafes.
“Without some kind of intervention, perhaps not enough people would have taken it seriously.
“It was important that we raised the issue to highlight the sustainability and quality of Scotch beef.
“It was quite important for myself and the industry as well.
“I felt quite territorial about it.
“A group of us got behind it and a girl who was studying at the Royal Dick Vet School, Sarah Whitelaw, was great.”
That campaign, John recalls, was the first time where he been able to call on his contacts and bring pressure to bear when needed most.
“It just shows that we need to try and work together,” he says.
“Quality Meat Scotland have done a lot of work in promoting Scotch beef around the world, which is held in the highest regard, and we thought it was time to do something.
“People just see these images of the Amazon being deforested for ranching and think that’s done here but they don’t understand that’s simply not the case.
“It’s important we get that message out to people – if you can tell them when they are kids it sticks with them, which is good.
“That was the first time I really got involved at an industry level.
“A fortnight after that, in March 2020, I was in a flat with an English boy and two Chinese boys.
“Then bang! Boris Johnson announced the lockdown over the TV and within half an hour the whole world changed.
“I don’t think anyone understood the scale of it.
“It was just coming up to exams and I had to come home.”
Back at Auchengibbert, John was lucky enough to be offered a full time job as stockman looking after suckler cows and dairy cross Aberdeen Angus cows for the beef supply chain – a move which increased his involvement with Stewartry Young Farmers.
“Before I moved to Galloway I had joined Stirling, Strathendrick and Strathkelvin Young Farmers,” he explains.
“I got involved in stock judging, concerts and speech making which had come in handy when I joined Stewartry Young Farmers in August 2017.
“Within two or three weeks everybody had made me feel very welcome.
“Not knowing anyone down here, I was keen to get out and meet new people.
“That’s why I joined the club – and the rest is history.
“At the AGM in 2017 I got a committee member’s position and by 2019 had been elected vice-chairman.
“Then within a couple of weeks the chairman had to move away for work and I decided to take it on – I was only 19.
“It was not the most sure-footed of introductions to leadership but I just had to get on with it.
“In March 2021 I was elected as chairman.
“The impact of Covid had really taken a toll and membership was standing at just over 30 – but by March 2022 we were up at 50 members and it was great to see the rise in interest in the club.
“At the AGM, the club asked me to do a third term and I agreed.
“I pushed to get the club to take part in more events nationally and brought back the boys’ and girls’ tug-o-war teams after a gap of 10 years.
“Now we are at 70 members – a huge rise in short space of time.
“I’ve just stood down as chairman in what is the club’s 90th anniversary year.
“We had 175 people attending the celebration at the Cocoabean on January 23.
“It’s been a huge success and I’m just delighted to have left the club in such a strong position for the new team to take forward.”
John and a team of Stewartry Young Farmer volunteers also took part in a promotional video for the Royal Highland Showcase with Lord Lieutenant of Dumfriesshire Fiona Armstrong.
“A lot of people got to see what our club was doing and we were showcasing south-west Scotland at the same time,” he says.
“I had the privilege of judging the beef shorthorn section at the June 2021 show, which was a huge opportunity for me.
“That year I was nominated as best agricultural student in the British Farming Awards and ended up on the final shortlist of four.
“I was pretty proud of that.
“I went down to Birmingham with my mum and dad.
“It was a huge honour to be nominated and to make the shortlist.”
Outside of the Stewartry, by 2019 John was West Region chairman of the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee, serving for two years, then in 2022 was elected committee national vice-chairman.
“That meant working very closely with politicians to raise concerns of young people in the industry and how we would like to see things going forward,” he tells me.
“I worked with rural affairs minister Mairi Gougeon and met Nicola Sturgeon at the Royal Highland Show last year.
“I have also been to Holyrood several times and went to Westminster to meet the then agricultural minister George Eustace.”
Last December, John and other agri committee members went out to Chile on an international study tour to see how farming practices compared with Scotland, 8,000 miles away.
“It was absolutely brilliant,” he says.
“Fifteen of us went out and we flew into Santiago and went south to Puerto Varas, visiting farms and seeing how they do things there.
“We went to one farm which was owned by a Scottish company growing blueberries.
“When they are not producing in this country, they can import from Chile to ensure they have an all year round production.
“It was a great trip with like minded people.”
Meanwhile, John was elected vice-chairman of Dumfries and Galloway Young Farmers on Sunday, April 2, by representatives of its constituent clubs – Stranraer and the Rhins, Machars, Stewartry, Thornhill, Lower Nithsdale and Annandale.
He is also a director of Dumfries Show, a steering committee member Future Farming Expo Scotland – a new event coming to Aberdeen in 2023 – and NFU Scotland Next Generation Group representative for Dumfries and Galloway.
On top of that, shortly he will take up a post as auctioneer at Wallets Marts in Castle Douglas and next month will judge the Beef Shorthorn bulls at Stirling Mart’s May sales.
In closing, John offers his humble thanks to those who have guided his agricultural career.
“I’d also like to thank my friend, the journalist Claire Taylor, for helping me through with advice on agricultural and rural affairs.”
