Farmer focus, livestock: Alistair Mackintosh

Suckled calf prices haven’t been as dire as some have predicted. We sold some eight to nine-month-old heifers and although the average was less than last year, it was only by about £3 a beast. We did sell some 15-month-old cattle which came to less money, but were still better sold than fattened.

We have, however, kept more cattle to finish this year than normal. We have a barn full of barley and all the signs point to an increase in the finished price next year; I hope, and besides no one local wants to buy barley at the price it is at the moment.

Our scrapper tractor, a Red Fergy 35, which is well into its fifties, has been given a makeover and service. The boys tell me it’s like new. I can remember as a boy, Dad using that tractor to do everything.

We’ve put about 500 store lambs onto a finishing ration and we will begin selling as they come fit.

Breeding ewes are tupping well, I always find it scary, how many get tupped in such a short time. Even through we only put 35 ewes to each ram, I still find myself adding more rams after just a few days. Perhaps I should be braver and put them all out at once and walk away. We’ve started to use raddle instead of harnesses on the rams, although it causes more work, we found them in some cases to cause sores on the rams.

I’ve always been keen to encourage wildlife and in the past we have planted hedges and installed wildlife corridors at my own expense. However, we have now applied to join an ELS/HLS scheme in the hope of pulling down some extra funding for one or two other projects.