Farming it out

international business

THE Bed And Breakfast signs that first began to sprout from the road

ends of farm tracks in the fifties were the harbingers of what was to

become known as ''farm diversification''.

Then, as now, the cash from letting out part of the family home made

all the difference to hundreds of hard-pressed farming families. But it

was not until 1982, when farmer's wife Jane Buchanan founded Scottish

Farmhouse Holidays, that the delights of holidaymaking down on the farm

began to be marketed in a systematic way.

Jane's husband James raises beef cattle and malting barley on the 280

acres of Drumtenant farm in the Howe of Fife. But in her farmhouse

office Jane tends a very different cash crop which has become a lifeline

to more than 100 farming families.

A 24-hour central reservation service allows her to market about 120

properties, most of them advertised in her annual Scottish Farmhouse

Holidays brochure. Ten thousand copies are forwarded to the British

Tourist Authority and the remainder of the 35,000 print run is

distributed from the farm, often in response to inquiries generated.

The business, which employs ''one-and-a-half people'' -- one full-time

and one part-time worker -- now has an annual turnover well over

#750,000.

Scottish Farmhouse Holidays now has its own agents in Italy, Germany,

Switzerland, France, Denmark, Belgium, and North America. The Europeans,

followed by the English, are the most frequent visitors to Scottish

farmhouses. The firm is also represented regularly at Scottish Tourist

Board exhibitions.

''The income from Scottish Farmhouse Holidays does help our

situation,'' says Jane, ''although it is not critical for us because,

while James is second generation on Drumtenant, our son and daughter

have no desire to take on the farm.

''But I am helping another 100 farming families to bring in additional

income of between #2000 and #10,000. It allows them to stay on the farm

and for some makes the difference between enjoying a bearable life-style

and enduring hardship.''

Jane does not underestimate the commitment required from participants

in the scheme. ''It is very demanding,'' she says. ''To make money, the

farmers' wives have to do the work themselves.

''They have to have a lot of personality and a bit of get-up-and-go.

People need to have the temperament which allows them to give up their

privacy.

''That is not always easy. But it is better to give up your privacy

than to give up your farm.''

Jane collects all of the monies from UK bookings in advance and pays

out to the farmers' wives monthly, which compares favourably with the

twice-yearly payments she receives from her overseas agencies.

She stresses: ''It is important to pay out on a monthly basis. During

July and August some landladies can have bills with the butcher and

baker of over #1000. It also makes the administration so much easier for

them.

''We send out a cheque with a proper accounting. It means the income

from bed-and-breakfast is readily identified and the accountants can see

it as another crop.''

A former district councillor and a member of Glenrothes Development

Corporation, Jane is fiercely independent and knows how to fight her own

corner. For our interview she is immaculately prepared with computer

print-outs and is firmly polite about getting her message across.

She declines to put a figure on the commission she charges but

concedes that it is ''much less than the High Street travel agent

because of lower overheads'', and says with disarming directness: ''The

agency is under my sole control -- it is not a co-operative.

''One or two people joined the scheme and didn't like me because they

thought I was autocratic. But I am always open to suggestions.''

Scottish Farmhouse Holidays grew out of Jane's Agricultural Study

Tours business which she continues to run in tandem with its larger

successor. This year groups have included forestry owners from Montana,

farmers from Lower Saxony, and agricultural students from Norway.

In 1981 she was awarded a Nuffield Travelling Scholarship which

allowed her six weeks travelling in Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, and France

to study varying methods by which farming families can add to their

incomes. Her research led directly to the establishment of Scottish

Farmhouse Holidays.

''There is nothing new in farmhouse accommodation in Scotland,'' she

says. ''At the end of the last century over the summer months, the

Scottish farm family would all live in the kitchen and a back bedroom

while the guests would use the front of the house.

''This carried on right into the early 1950s when bed-and-breakfast

started to take off. But what was new in the early 1980s was Scottish

Farmhouse Holidays telling the world about it.''

She adds: ''My main aim was, and still is, to find additional income

for farm families. I am not interested in the lady who lives in the

country, whose husband happens to be a lawyer in Edinburgh, and who is

just looking for pocket money. I am concerned about the families on

working farms, small-holdings or crofts who rely on agriculture for

their main source of income.''

There is little doubt she has succeeded in her ambition. There is now

a waiting list for farming families wishing to join the scheme, and

about a third of revenue is derived from repeat and recommended

business.

Jane remains convinced both of the importance of her work for rural

communities and of the good value represented by holidays on Scottish

farms.

''Tourism income in Scotland is giving farm families the chance of

staying on their family farms,'' she says. Bed-and-breakfast on farms

will be popular with visitors as long as it remains budget accommodation

and value for money.

''And I believe that guests living alongside the family are offered a

warmth, friendliness and informality that other types of accommodation

are unable to match.''