Iain Green prepares for the bull sales

The spell of unseasonably good weather has continued through January allowing us to catch up with some drainage work which we didn’t manage to carry out last winter. And a slight frost has enabled us to back fill the drains with stone without leaving any tracks.

We have also been busy converting another cattle court, away from the traditional straw bedded court into a scrape through passage with catching yokes and a separate straw-bedded lying area. Although this resulted in laying another large area of concrete, the saving in straw over the next few years will more than pay for this.

We worked into the evenings for several nights in order to allow us time off for a very enjoyable trip to LAMMA.

With the grass continuing to grow, the ewes have only been fed hay and are in very good condition. Only after scanning them recently, have we started to give the ewes carrying twins and triplets a liquid supplement. I was happy with the results of the scanning as we have achieved a percentage of 193, they have scanned fewer triplets and singles with more twins than in previous years which is ideal and we only have eight barren ewes.

By the time you read this article our team of nine bulls and three heifers should be on their way to the bull sales at Stirling. Hopefully the trade will follow recent markets which have seen fantastic prices for both finished and store cattle. Recently I sold 15 Simmental cross cows to a top price of £1,390 and an average of £1,103 and a 15-month-old Simmental bull which I thought was not good enough for breeding, grossed £1,513 deadweight.

• Read more about the bull sales at Stirling