Jim Shanks is a fifth generation dairy farmer based at Standhill Farm near Hawick. Jim farms alongside his wife, Kerry and children Martha, Anna and George as well as Jenny the dog.

Standhill Farm, situated in the heart of the Scottish Borders, was bought in 1951 and originally geared towards dairy production but is now a hub of innovation, creation, diversification and employment. On 500 acres the farm produces 2 million litres of milk a year, 1600MW of clean green electricity and 8500MW of renewable heat.

After having diversified into renewables in the form of biomass and biogas, Jim is currently Scotland’s only commercial producer of tomatoes, supplying 750t a year to supermarkets, the Glasgow fruit market as well as a few local shops.

Jim admits that it was bold to move to begin tomato growing after many other businesses given up. But, as a dairy farmer, he was driven by a desire to become more eco-friendly and after taking a closer look at other farms, mainly abroad, which were producing their own electricity from slurry he realised that some of these by-products could be used to help grow tomatoes.

Energy at Standhill is produced from the dairy herd slurry which powers a biogas tank connected to a generator; the electricity is used by the farm with the surplus sold to the national grid. The tomatoes in their glasshouse absorb the waste CO2, turning it into oxygen.