Our annual herd test is taking place this week. The tuberculin was injected on Tuesday so they won’t be read until Friday. The test is compulsory, otherwise I wouldn’t have it. In fact, I am not quite sure why we have to have it.

I am acutely conscious of how TB is increasing in the national herd but everything I produce has to go to the factory and I have to have adequate fencing to prevent spread to other herds. From a selfish point of view, it is really disruptive.

The stores out on grass have to be brought in twice while the almost-finished beef still in the sheds have to be taken out and twice put in the chute.

We try to treat them as gently as possible but at a minimum, weight gain is sharply reduced for the week – hopefully there will be no injuries.

As well as the inconvenience and doubtful national value of the exercise, I also have to pay for each animal tested. That said, I can understand why the Department would want to monitor how TB is being controlled in finishing herds, but testing is much less frequent in finishing herds in Scotland than our annual obligation.

Given that the postmortem inspection in the factory is done on every carcase, I am not sure what is gained.

But anyway, these are the rules and I have no real option but to obey. We have participated in the badger vaccination programme for the last number of years and it’s quite a while since we had a reactor, though I notice telltale signs of fresh burrowing in the banks of a ditch where the soil is sandy so I will be interested to see the results from the tests on badgers the next time.

At one stage we were locked up for over 10 years in a row but at no stage did we have a significant number of reactors in any test, unlike some of the stories we hear of breakdowns on dairy farms.

It is astonishing that what is a long running “eradication” programme is making so little progress.

On the cattle price side, I am relieved to see the beef price increasing again so we will continue to feed with a better frame of mind.

On the tillage side, the oat panicles are now just about emerging, the winter barley is in full flower, while practically all the yellow has disappeared from the oilseed rape. The dry weather seems to have affected the effectiveness of the pre-emergent herbicide in some of the beans, but I am not sure if we will have to take any extra action. While the rain that did come early on in the week was welcome, the quantity was small.