Although Christmas and new year festivities are now ?nished, it will be another week before we are back to full sta? – as my son, John, is away skiing in France with the Young Farmers.

Our last calf of the season was born on Christmas Day and we only have 13 calves being fed on milk at the moment, so we are not too busy just yet.

We still have some cows to AI, but daily numbers are much smaller – with none to serve on some days.

We had a particularly good day at our PD session with the vet this week, with 19 out of 21 cows presenting in-calf, and all 13 heifers also confirmed as pregnant.

It’s been quite a while since we’ve had such a good result, and perhaps the new LED lights we installed in the cubicle shed this summer are having the positive impact on fertility we hoped for.

We will monitor PD results for the rest of winter and see if improved fertility is sustained.

Some cows were also blood sampled at the visit to check for selenium and vitamin E levels.

Since starting our conversion to organic production we have not been feeding vitamin E to the cows as this is not allowed – unless there is a clinical need for it and the vet advises it needs to be fed for the health and welfare of the cows.

It will be interesting to see the results, as generally dairy farmers feed high levels of vitamin E to their cows.

Our son, William, is now in his final year at Glasgow Veterinary School and has not been at home much over the past couple of years due to his studies and various placements.

However, he has been at home over the holiday period and we’ve been glad to have an extra pair of hands at times.

He has been treating a few of the tup lambs that had sore feet and I also have a couple of lame cows for him to look at – all good practice for when he starts being a vet for real.

Barley bulls

We have just I've barley bulls left for slaughter, and although over the years they have been a profitable enterprise, with the price of barley this winter and the reduced beef price at the moment, it is perhaps a fortunate time to be stopping.

Instead, all our bull calves are now being castrated and sold to a farm at Ardmiddle, where they will be reared less intensively for finishing at two years instead of 12 to 13 months.

Dairy farming

Milk producers in the northeast of Scotland have been looking at various options for processing milk in the region since Müller closed its facility in Aberdeen in 2016.

It is disappointing to say that we were not able to come up with a viable solution, and it is not surprising that the number of dairy farms in the region has reduced by 13 to date, with the prospect of a few more producers stopping as well.

The North East Milk Producers Association is willing to look at further options, but at this moment in time it is difficult to see what these might be.