Meet the Consultant - Alex Pirie
Hi there, my name is Alexander Pirie, and I have been with SAC Consulting now for just over a decade. The last two years as Senior Consultant and Area Manager for our Ayr office in southwest Scotland. I come from a dairy background, farming just outside Campbeltown on the Kintyre Peninsula, alongside my brother and parents. The farm covers just over 60 hectares, and we run a herd of around 230 productive Holstein Friesians, with some limited cropping and a small flock of sheep to follow. I’m hugely grateful for my time on the farm but following a four-year stint at the former SRUC Riverside Campus in Ayr, where I studied a combination of Agriculture and Countryside Management, I took the leap into consulting.
Following graduation in 2015 I initially returned home to the farm for a brief spell, until our local consultant at the time, John Forster invited me in for a chat with the then north regional manager, Alister Laing – little did I know at the time, but this chat was an interview and I must have said all the right things, because it ended with a job offer. I began my new role as a Trainee Consultant in the Inverness office, a real move, but a welcome challenge and a terrific team – located in Ayrshire now, I still look back on my time in the highlands fondly and return every now and again.
I’ve always been a keen environmentalist, something that has put me in a good position for the future we now find ourselves collectively hurtling towards. I have been involved in Agri Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) applications from the beginning. My skillset both agricultural and environmental led to me help with designing and delivering a fundable application for farmers and crofters. Carbon Auditing is another area of interest, and I have worked with the local and national teams on the Farming for a Better Climate initiative, which has hugely formative on the kind of consultant I’ve become, with the benefit of hindsight.
In 2019 I took the opportunity to transfer office and move back to the southwest, where there are more dairy cows and kinder, shorter winters. I found myself working across Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and the islands, Bute and Arran. I launched Net Zero Arran, a climate change benchmarking group on the island – something that continues to today, supported by Scotland's Farm Advisory Service (FAS). Through the Farm Advisory Service, I have promoted nature friendly and low carbon farming principles. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I started the Thrill of the Hill podcast to discuss issues impacting the farmed upland environment, particularly around climate change and nature conservation.
It was a great honour to be the first recipient of the Elrick Award in 2021 in recognition of my work to improve the sustainability of land use. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing other very worthy colleagues also recognised in subsequent years. Also in 2021, and in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow, I completed my first radio appearance on BBC Radio Scotland’s Lunchtime Live – being called ‘Scotland’s answer to Greta Thunberg’, which is something that I have taken as a compliment.
In 2023, I took on the role of Ayr office manager after a restructuring. The office has a range of consultants, technicians and analysts that support farmers locally, as well as across the region, with six in my immediate team and another two on the way! The office works with farmers from across the sectors and industry, from dairy to beef and sheep, with fewer but still notable arable, pig and poultry units. Collectively the office will service around 650 clients regularly and is very involved in the delivery of national initiatives too.
Over the years I have had the chance of learning from some brilliant, dynamic and experienced consultants and hopefully put my own mark on things. It’s been said many times before but the people within the company are what makes it what it is and is why we can deliver such breadth and depth of expertise for our farmers and clients.
Alexander Pirie, Senior Consultant and Area Manager, alexander.pirie@sac.co.uk
Unearthed is the exclusive SAC Consulting members' monthly newsletter. Unearthed offers insights and tips from our experts on what we think is in store for farming and crofting in the coming months in order to protect and enhance your business.
Posted by Unearthed News on 15/04/2025
