Farmer Focus Livestock: Cold weather allows progress for Robert Neill

The cold start to the New Year has allowed us to make progress on mucking the cattle out and getting the spreaders going. We managed to spread a year’s worth of manure so far which will hopefully reduce the need for buying expensive fertiliser, reducing costs this year.

Cows have now been given their first bluetongue vaccination and blood tested as part of the premium health scheme. This means by the time they start calving in March they will have been through the handling system six times to receive all the necessary injections and tests.

Bull sales are just around the corner. We will probably be heading to the Limousin sales at Perth and Carlisle.

We are possibly looking at buying a bull to replace an older sire we recently sold. We realise we have to keep our Limousin herd strong to fight off the Aberdeen Angus threat from our neighbours. We are almost surrounded by these black animals.

An excavator digger arrived amidst the wind and sleet to start work on the foundations for a new shed. It means yet more mud is being generated to go with the already adequate amount Upper Nisbet has at the moment.

The new shed will house cattle and will allow us to keep more weaned calves at home over winter.

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