Farmer Focus: New calving pens put through their paces

Nineteen years after our first calf, I have finally got our calving pens how I want them.

Each one consists of a self-locking yoke fixed to posts set in concrete, and a 2.4m gate, which comes around on the left-hand side of the cow.

This can be split horizontally if the calf needs help to feed. The pens are almost 4m deep, which leaves plenty of room to work a calving jack if needed.

Sadly, we were only at three calves, and I had already used all the features on the new gates.

See also: 3 cattle handling kit options to stay safe at calving

About the author

Steven Sandison

Livestock Farmer Focus writer Steven Sandison farms 90 Simmental and Salers-cross suckler cows on the Orkney Islands in partnership with his wife, Lorraine, on 134ha (330 acres). They have a 150-ewe flock of Shetland cross Cheviot ewes. Maximising grass is a priority.

Read more articles by Steven Sandison

My nephew designed and made new pens for himself a few years ago. There is no one better to make something than someone who will be using whatever they have made.

Every year, our weaned calves go through a phase which I call their “vaccination”, when we challenge their natural immune systems in the shed. I’m no vet, but I think it works.

It happened this year in early February, a long time after weaning. They coughed and were drowsy and their appetite was affected, but thankfully none of them needed treating with antibiotics and were back to normal in four days.

Only once has it ended up in a serious outbreak of pneumonia.

We scanned 154 ewes in the last week of January, and found four empties, 16 singles, 110 pairs, 23 triplets – and one carrying four lambs!

I was recently told about MyHerdStats on ScotEID. There isn’t a lot of information on it yet, but mortality rates, calving intervals, age at sale and so on are all there.

This information has all been recorded since the birth of the British Cattle Movement Service, so it’s good to see it being used and put together in a way which can help our businesses.

I must also praise ScotEID. Anyone who has had the misfortune of calling companies to deal with utility bills and the like knows how frustrating it can be, whether being put on hold to some dreadful music or talking to a computer.

You find yourself thinking that lambing a ewe with rotten lambs maybe isn’t the worst part of being a farmer.

Anyway, I have called ScotEID more than once this past year and the service has been fantastic – more like phoning a family friend. Top marks, ScotEID.