Iain Green welcomes plans for EID in cattle

I should have known better than to mention the fact only a few weeks ago that our grain dryer had never been switched on this season. Now that we have started cutting again, it has never been off. Both straw and grain yields have been excellent though and, hopefully, by the time you read this most of the north-east harvest will be finished and Aberdeenshire farmers will be in a buoyant buying mood at the store cattle sales.

The finished cattle price is being maintained. I recently sold a young reject breeding bull for £1,396 and a nine-year-old home-bred Simmental bull for £1,478 – a big difference compared to when we only received around £200 a head for more-than-30-month-old cattle. The current cattle trade should lead to a healthy autumn bull sale. Our stockman has been busy training our entry of five Simmental bulls and three heifers for the October bull sales in Stirling.

I am glad to see that it looks like the EID in cattle will finally be adopted, which will see huge benefits for producers in terms of reducing paperwork and records. The most important point must be that the EID tags do not fall out and are made of a higher grade of material that should last the life of the animal.

I have tried one type of EID system, but I am unsure which one is the best and which manufacturers’ tags will be the most durable. I have applied for a grant under my Land Managers Options this year to assist with implementing the EID system, but hopefully the Scottish Government may contribute more if it sees how beneficial the EID system would be in Scotland.

More columns from Iain Green

More columns from other Farmer Focus Farmers