Arriving at Hillsborough as a six‑year‑old, Alistair Carson’s life has been intertwined with the research farm’s story for half a century. From helping his father with weekend inspections and watching silage trials, to leading sheep research and now advising government as Chief Scientific Adviser, he reflects on how one place – and 100 years of science – have shaped farmers, policy and agricultural practice across Northern Ireland
For Alistair Carson, Hillsborough is not just a former workplace – it is deeply woven into his family history. His father, Fred, served as farm manager at Hillsborough from the mid‑1970s, where as a boy of six, Alistair accompanied him on weekend inspections, learning the language of fields, livestock and trials long before he encountered research papers and policy briefs.
Before coming to Hillsborough, his father was farm manager at Blakiston-Houston Estate, overseeing several farms. The move to Hillsborough in 1974 brought the family into the heart of experimental agriculture – an upbringing that would have a profound influence upon the now Chief Scientific Adviser within the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).
Life on the estate blended everyday farming with the emerging science that was beginning to transform grassland and livestock systems. Weekends often meant following his father around the farm.
“I would have gone around at the weekend with my father and done a bit of grapping and things at silage time with him,” he says, remembering routine inspections and practical jobs that, at the time, felt like simply helping out.
Those years coincided with a period of major change at Hillsborough. Under his father’s watch, substantial land reclamation and improvement work took place.
“Even when we came to Hillsborough, my father led quite a bit of land reclamation, particularly out at the Open Park. It was brought back into grassland. There would have been a lot of land improvement done when we initially came to Hillsborough,” Carson explains.
Alongside this were pioneering studies in silage-making – direct cut versus wilted silage, different additives and conservation methods – all focused on improving winter feeding from conserved grass. For a young boy, it was a formative education in how science, management and practical farming come together.
Learning Science the Practical Way
“Becoming an agriculture advisor was my ambition when I was at school,” says Carson, who went on to study agriculture at degree level, and then decided to pursue a PhD.
Even at A‑level, Hillsborough played a role in his development as a scientist and gave him an early taste of experimental design and working alongside established scientists.
“I did my biology A Level project on flax, growing flax in the greenhouse there and Lindsay Easson would have given me advice in terms of the different treatments I put on.”
His PhD, carried out between Hillsborough and the Veterinary Sciences Division at Stoney Road, focused on bull beef production and the development of vaccines to control aggression in bulls.
Although the specific vaccines did not ultimately reach commercial use, the work built valuable understanding of vaccine development and behaviour in intensive beef systems – knowledge that has fed into later advances.
Industry Experience and Return to Research
“We were at the cutting edge of science and provided a really good basis on which to go forward,” enthuses Carson, who after his PhD stepped into the agri‑food industry, working as ruminant technical manager for Dalgety Agriculture, a major feed compounder in Belfast. It was a role rooted in applying evidence to real-world farm decisions – from feed formulation to productivity and animal health.
In 1995, he returned to what is now AFBI Hillsborough, taking up a post as Head of the Sheep Research Programme.
We did a lot of major on‑farm work alongside farmers, looking at breeding options for the hill sheep and lowland sheep sector to improve outputs,” he recalls.
Later, Alistair’s portfolio expanded to include dairy heifer rearing, and he progressed to senior leadership roles, ultimately becoming Head of Sustainable Agriculture Branch in the 2000s.
Asked about the major changes that stand out from his time at Hillsborough, Carson points to tangible outputs that moved from research plots into commercial practice.
“We developed blueprints for rearing dairy herd replacements, which was a big thing and taken up by the industry,” he says. “And we developed easier‑care systems for sheep, lower labour input systems, again with a lot of on‑farm work.”
These initiatives helped farmers rear more productive dairy heifers and manage sheep systems that required less labour while maintaining performance – issues that remain highly relevant today amidst workforce pressures and cost challenges.
The on‑farm events that supported this work were, in his view, just as important as the experiments themselves. Researchers, department staff, farmers and farm workers all played a part in communicating and demonstrating the findings.
A Community of Science and Collaboration
For Alistair, his memories of Hillsborough are not only about experiments and reports; they are also about community. He remembers lunch‑time football matches on a pitch near the lab –and the camaraderie among students and staff, including the annual minibus trip to Scarborough to present at the British Society of Animal Science conference.
These experiences helped shape not only his scientific thinking, but also his skills in presentation, collaboration and engagement – all critical in his later advisory roles.
“I think that training always stays with you,” he reflects.
A Hundred Years of Change
Looking back over Hillsborough’s 100‑year history, Alistair is clear about its significance for the agri-food industry, as well as for the wider environment and rural community.
He sees the fingerprints of ARINI and AFBI Hillsborough’s work in many aspects of modern farming:
“The systems of livestock production that are on commercial farms have their bases in a lot of the work that was done at Hillsborough,” he says.
“That influence extends from the nutritional side into breeding decisions, genetics and overall management.”
He stresses the lasting impact of agricultural trials from Hillsborough.
“You can see the information being used, often many years after the original research was completed.”
Science, Policy and a Changing World
As Chief Scientific Adviser, Carson now sits at the interface of science and policy. He believes the role of centres like AFBI is more crucial than ever in an era of climate change, environmental pressures and global market volatility.
“The provision of really solid information to develop policies which balance the agri-food economy, the environment and climate is really, really important,” he argues. “That overall balance is hard to achieve and needs really solid information and new innovations as well.”
Looking ahead, his message to farmers and wider stakeholders is clear: “Having robust information on which to base informed decisions is really so crucial in a rapidly changing environment and having that local source of information… increasingly done in conjunction with a range of other organisations to take a holistic approach, is ever more important.”
For Carson, Hillsborough is both a family story and a professional one – a place where his father reshaped fields, where he grew up and studied, and where generations of researchers have turned ideas into practice.