As I write this it is pouring rain and freezing cold outside so I decided the best option was to sit in front of the computer and catch up on a few bits of paperwork.

I have to travel to Edinburgh on Wednesday to attend a Belted Galloway Council meeting. I need to catch up on the minutes from the last meeting, the agenda for this meeting and also go through any emails. It’s always enjoyable to go to these meetings and see how everyone is getting on farm wise in Scotland and across the UK.

We had what we didn’t have for years here during the week, a beef heifer springing which is not something we want. She was bought last October and is 15 months old.

After a few phone calls she found herself back on the farm where she came from. The auctioneer at the mart told us that 2014/15 weanling sales has been particularly bad for beef heifers turning up in calf, the most he has had in many years, was it the good weather last summer/autumn encouraged these calves to come bulling?

It is a constant problem all over from talking to other farmers and is something that than cause terrible problems especially from a welfare point of view with young heifers trying to calve big continental calves, dead calves, dead heifers and severe financial losses.

It is always something we watch carefully for especially when heifers are housed on slats because they are bought for beef/feeding and with young heifers they can spring up/calve in a very short space of time hence the problems if not noticed in time, our vet has told us of some horror stories in regards to this problem. After all every mart has a sign up saying “heifers are sold not in calf unless otherwise declared”

A friend who works in Dublin and only sees his cattle during the winter came home the other day to find one calved, luckily she was an older heifer and so managed to calve OK but he now has the issue of dealing with this suckler enterprise which he didn’t want.

I know of one mart that offers a scanning service at some of the big weanling sales but this is not a cure all. I saw at another weanling sale where bulls and heifers were mixed leaving the ring so it may not always be the vendors fault.

It is something that needs more focus and attention paid too as it is no addition to anyone, vendor/purchaser/animal or mart and just leads to arguments/stress/expense and more unnecessary paperwork.