Scotgrain Agriculture

Owen Southwood

General Manager Scotgrain Agriculture and Procurement Director Bairds Malt

Owen studied Agricultural business Management at Wye College and the University of London before he began his career at Dengie Crops in Essex. He also has experience working with Allied Grain, Grampian Country Food Group, Dewing Grain and Frederic Smart and Sons before taking the role as General Manager with Scotgrain.

Using his experience of technical analysis and fundamental trading techniques Owen runs the grain trading for Scotgrain as well as overseeing the business across Scotland.  Owen lives in Angus with his wife and two daughters where they run a smallholding where he and his wife keep pigs and dairy goats whose milk is used for cheese making.

Kevin Robb

Commercial Manager

Kevin has spent the last 15 years working in farm trading, developing a real understanding of the agricultural industry and the people behind it. Over that time, Kevin has worked closely with farmers, suppliers and buyers. The experience he has gained has given him a strong feel for market movements, pricing and the day-to-day challenges faced across the sector.

Now having stepped into the role of Commercial Manager, Kevin is committed to supporting our partners and helping the business move forward together. 

Amy Macaskill

Grain Trading

Amy is from a farming family in Perthshire and graduated from University with a Criminology degree in 2017. After working as a groom on horse studs in Scotland and Australia she returned home and began working in the grain industry.

Amy joined Scotgrain in 2021, and after roles including Logistics Co-ordinator and Supply Chain Planner (for Bairds Malt), she took on the role of Grain Trader in 2024. This is a fast-paced role and consists of trading both physical grains and the futures markets across the wheat, feed barley and OSR book, while working closely with the Scotgrain Farm Business Managers.

Gary Mills

Seed Manager

Gary graduated with a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from Edinburgh Napier University before beginning work in the oil and gas sector working as a field engineer with both Schlumberger and Gyrodata. 

He joined the malting industry in 2017 when he became Bairds Malt Grain co-ordinator. and joined the Scotgrain team at the end of 2022 in his current role as seed trader.

Mark Cessford

Fertiliser Manager

Mark grew up in and around a haulage and family farming enterprise. Following further education, he joined the newly created fertiliser blender Angus Fertilisers, where he led the production teams in Montrose and Dundee.

His experience then extended to working with another fertiliser blender, J & H Bun, before venturing into business himself, in the haulage industry.  More recently Mark worked with Rix Shipping as their General Manager before joining Scotgrain in Feb 2025.

Alistair Eccles

Lead agronomist

Alistair is our lead agronomist and helps our growers maximise their crop potential. From a farming family in Ayrshire, Alistair joined Scotgrain in November 2025 and has extensive technical and commercial crop protection experience. He joined Scotgrain from ADAMA where he was an Account and Agronomy Manager. Alistair also spent 16 years in the grass seed sales with Germinal and DLF.