Iain Green ends up a happy host of Scotland’s Beef Event

I did ask myself why I agreed to host Scotland’s Beef Event with the volume of extra work involved. But it turned out to be a great success and an enjoyable day with 5,000 people attending.

Despite the strong wind (which kept the rain away) all the trade stands reported a busy day and I have had several enquires for stock. Thanks must go to all my staff, NBA Scotland, the sponsors, and all those who made the event happen.

Both our Scottish agriculture minister, Richard Lochhead, and Adam Henson spoke highly of the Scottish agriculture industry and the future it will have in feeding tomorrow’s nation with quality food.

The past few weeks have seen our stockman busy preparing our show team of Simmental cattle for Scotland’s major agricultural shop window, the Royal Highland Show.

By the time you read this we will have finished first-cut silage at our upland unit and the ewes will have been clipped, which with the value of wool increasing will hopefully be worthwhile this year.

I cannot believe the EU is considering that in the future all sheep farmers must ensure all sheep have EID tags and are able to be individually identified, and that failure of these tags to work correctly at an inspection or point of sale will result in a penalty being deducted from the keeper’s single farm payment. It may make keeping sheep not worth the risk or hassle.