Winton Farming

‘Grown in East Lothian’ can apply to a wide range of food and drink products and sit alongside the county accolade ‘Scotland’s Bread Basket’.

Winton Estate is in the heart of the county. Its main crops are wheat, barley and oil-seed rape with some cattle and sheep on grass. The crops are the mainstay for distilling and bread making whilst oil-seeds are used for cooking fuel, plastics, animal and fish feed. Crops are rotated each year since they take or give back to the soil different nutrients.

The Winton soil has its own classification: ‘Winton series’ mixing sand and clay on top of a stickier boulder clay. For more information see the Local Geology section.

Roughly half of the farmland is let to tenants and the rest is farmed ‘in-hand’ under contract by one of the tenants.

A new estate grain store was added in 2012 which allows sales of mainly wheat to catch markets through the year.