The History of McLaren Farms
1800s
Started in the late 1800s at Durnira Farm as tenant farmers located in West Perthshire. Our Great Grandfather John McLaren and his wife Margaret had 5 children together.
Unfortunately, due to its remote location, it was too far away from anything, particularly schools. This was one of the contributing factors for our family to look elsewhere.
1900s
In 1913, the opportunity of the Fintalich farm tenancy on the Drummond Castle Estate became available. Fintalich had been run down and we spent the first years liming and draining the farm, regenerating it into agricultural land.
When at Fintalich the farm established a dairy herd which served the local community in Crieff with milk. The sons John and James championed this by doing the deliveries from a young age.
In 1928 there was an unfortunate accident while attending to the livestock, John McLaren was attacked by a bull suffering major injuries that stopped his ability to work. The accident led to his wife Margaret taking over the farm with two of her sons John and James creating MJ & J McLaren.
In 1939 the business’s continued growth allowed for a new tenancy of the neighbouring farm Dargill. The introduction of the pasteurisation of milk meant that a large investment was needed to modernise the dairy, therefore a partnership was formed with another dairy farm so that they could continue to directly supply milk to its customers.
2000s
In 1999 the business had an amicable split of partners. This left Ian McLaren(third generation) with sons John, Mike and Peter. Who had not long come home from studies at Agriculture college. Together, they farmed Fintalich, Fullarton and Cronan Farm.
Since the 2000s the business has taken on contract farming agreements with other businesses and continued to grow the existing farms. There has been a significant concentration on improving the infrastructures on farms with additional buildings being built (mainly cold storage). Conventional farming practices have also been changed due to the introduction of fresh produce and converting some land into organic.
1950s
The business purchased its first farm, Clathymore
1967
Cronan Farm was purchased
1984
Sold Clathymore Farm,
Bought Fullerton Farm
1989
Bought Arnbog
1993
Arnbog Cold store
1996
Built Cronan Top Cold Storage
1999
Sold out of Dairy Supplier Partnership
1999
Amicable Split of Partnership
2000
Join East of Scotland Growers, started growing broccoli
2001
Balbrogie Cold store
2002
Cronan Potato Grader and Shed
2003
Installed Grain Drier at Fullerton
2003
Carried Out Underground Pipe Work for Irrigation
2005
Built Cold Storage for Baldinnies
2008
First Crop of Organic Broccoli
2012
Built Fullerton Grain Storage
2013
First solar panels installed
2016
Fintalich Cold stores Built
2017
Installed New Potatp Grader at Fintalich
Arnbog Cold store Built
2018
Arnbog Farms Began Conversion into Organic
2020
Brassica Packhouse