Well, what a harvest that was! On the 1st of September, it looked like we would be ?nished by the 15th. We ?nally ?nished in the first week of October. I got the combine stuck six times in one six-acre ?eld. We are lucky compared to some further west who still aren’t ?nished. The mild wet weather did, however, result in some great yields.

I have always thought that the yield meter in my combine was optimistic; in a ?eld of Leeds winter wheat (which is the world record-yielding variety), the meter was touching 12 tonnes/acre in places. I took a printout of the ?eld which said 7.93t/ac, however, once l worked it out properly, the yield was actually 5 t/ac dried. More realistic, but still a record for us from a stony ?eld on top of a hill in Aberdeenshire.

We pregnancy tested and Johnes tested our cows last week. I think this is always the most nerve-wracking day in the beef cow calendar. We like to have at least 95% of cows put to the bull in calf after a 10-week bulling period. We just made it with 10 not in calf from 201 put to the bull.

We don’t usually have a problem with staggers, but this year made up for it. One group of 30 cows had two sudden deaths and one which we treated several times and then shot. They had high-mag blocks and straw. We then put high-mag minerals on the straw and ?nally high-mag syrup on the straw. Weaning was the solution. I don’t know if the pig slurry had locked up the magnesium in that group, but the other groups were ?ne.

Our pig abattoir at Brechin is still not up and running following a ?re. It shows how fragile our pig industry is here in Northeast Scotland, with ?nished pigs being transported to Manchester and Northern Ireland. Although we had to tag all the pigs and have them vet checked on departure, deliveries across the water were going ?ne until the supermarket buyer decided they were on the lorry too long. They then had to be unloaded at Castle Douglas. The stress of unloading and reloading and mixing of pigs was far greater than leaving them on the lorry where they were perfectly comfortable. This is one of these instances where people with little knowledge of livestock put rules in place which they think will improve things but instead, is detrimental to animal welfare.

Last week we had an NFUS meeting about share-farming. Around 20 people were expected, but 47 crammed into the room. Fellow ‘Farmer Writes’ contributor, Mark Donald, did a great job explaining how contract farming worked in his business. Many people were there to see how they could take things easier by getting someone younger involved in their business. This could be done by share-farming or contract farming and seems an ideal way for younger farmers to build up more capital. After all, tenancies are only going to be harder to come by in the future under the current land reform rules.