Farming and forestry are the backbone of the Estate and have been for many years. Although not directly employing nearly as many as would have been the case 100 years ago, these activities created, and now maintain, the landscape enjoyed by so many while still playing a major part in the economy of the estate and local area.
Farming is mainly livestock orientated with some barley production and upland Moray has an envied reputation for producing fine beef cattle which often win prizes at major fatstock shows. Our own herd of Longhorn cattle graze the fields around the Steading while roughly half the land at Logie is farmed by individual small businesses to whom the estate rents the land and buildings.
Much of the remaining land is used for growing trees. Moray has a long tradition of timber production and that tradition leads to a high standard of management. This, in turn, results in a high quality end product used in a variety of fields from generating heat and power through fencing and pallet production to house construction.
The long term nature of our forest management also gives us the “broken up” mosaic of differing aged woodland and open ground which helps make the local area so attractive.
Interestingly the three main products of Moray, timber, livestock and whisky come together with modern technology where woodchip is used to provide heat for distilling malted barley into whisky and a by-product of distillation is used as a livestock feed.
Forestry also links in to provide fuel used in our biomass heating system which provides heating and hot water to Logie Steading, Logie House and 4 cottages. In the near future we will be setting up a small sawmill specialising in high quality timber products using trees from the estate and the local area.