History & Meet The Team

With at least 6 generations of farming experience and knowledge of farming in and around the West Lothian area, we certainly have ‘farming in our blood’.

Since the late 1800’s, 3 generations of the Dandie family farmed at The Dales Farm and Blaeberryhill Farm at Whitburn, West Lothian. In 1944, Walter Dandie (3rd generation) left The Dales farm to take on the tenancy of Pumpherston farm, at Pumpherston. Along with his 4 young sons, David, Wattie, Bert and Alan. It was also in 1944 that the company of Walter Dandie & Sons was formed. In 1966 Lookaboutye farm at Broxburn was bought, followed by Learielaw farm at Broxburn in 1968.

Pumpherston Farm served as the main farm base for Walter Dandie and Sons until 1978 when Alan left the business to Farm the Pumpherston Tenancy on his own with David and Wattie (4th generation) moving to Learielaw and Lookaboutye to turn Learielaw into the main farm holding for Walter Dandie & Sons where we remain based today. Bert farmed for a number of years at Pumpherston, before deciding to pursue a different career.

Walter’s two sons, David and William (6th generation) both completed HNDs in Agriculture at Oatridge College and came home to Farm in 2001 and 2004. Both are keen to try out new methods and ideas, equipping the business to move forward in the ever-changing world of agriculture.

David’s two sons Walter and Robert (5th generation) came home to farm in the late 70’s and are still actively farming today. When Learielaw was bought in 1968 it consisted of 100 acres, between 1968 and 1985, neighbouring land around Broxburn was purchased growing Learielaw to 500 acres.

In 1993 we were approached to enter into a contract farm agreement. Since then we have entered into further contract farm agreements in 2000, 2007, 2015, 2016 and 2017, growing the land farmed by Walter Dandie & Sons to over 3000 acres.

Walter Dandie

Primary spray operator with our 28-metre front and rear mounted sprayer. Walter is responsible for buying and selling cattle for the beef enterprise. He spends his winters ploughing and operating our 360 digger and his summers driving our Claas 780 TT combine.

Robert Dandie

Drill operator with our 4-metre grain/fert drill. When not on the drill Robert is either ploughing or maintaining fences.

David Dandie

Drill operator with our 6-metre grain/fert drill. David spends most of the spring on the fertiliser spreader. In the summer if not on the drill, he is either on the cultivator or ploughing.

William Dandie

The mechanic of the team, William spends much of his time in the workshop fixing and making things. He also operates the 2nd sprayer, fert spreader and the two grain driers through the summer.

Frazer Cowan

Frazer has been with us since 2018. He operates the farms Spread Point lime spreader and carries out contract lime/fibrephos spreading around the area. He also operates our Kuhn round baler at harvest and spreads all the FYM/compost with our 14 ton Agrihire dung spreader.

Ryan Wilson

New to the team in 2022, Ryan has completed his HND in Agriculture at Oatridge College and will be operating a cultivator and plough.

Joe Porco

Joe joined us in 2024 as our lorry driver. Joe can be found in his Scania 490 every day either with the bulk trailer or flat trailer on. Shifting mainly farm based products.