A friend was bemoaning an unannounced inspection of all his cattle and records by government officials from the Rural Payments and Inspection Division (RPID). Fortunately his herd was still indoors in sheds that are conveniently adjacent to the cattle handling pens. Had the inspection come next month the cattle would have been out at grass and needed to be rounded up and brought back to the farm steading.

Unannounced cattle inspections are part of a wider audit requirement on Scottish Government to verify that farms claiming for various support schemes are complying with the rules.

Every year a small number of farms, about 5 per cent, are selected at random for inspection. Each calf has to be fitted with ear-tags shortly after birth that carry an individual identification number. Details such as the ear-tag number, the date of birth and the mother's ID are submitted to the British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS) which issue individual cattle passports, that subsequently record details of its movements off the farm.

Cattle inspectors physically inspect animals to verify the accuracy of records and check the ear-tags to ensure the cattle have been tagged correctly. Cattle records such as deaths, movements and passports are checked against the information supplied to the Cattle Tracing System (CTS) database, verifying the information in records plus other supporting documents such as purchase and sales invoices.

Most areas are well through the annual inspection process, with unofficial reports suggesting failures around cattle ID and tagging are at an unacceptably high level. That can cost thousands of pounds as the penalties with those breaches will see significant sums of money deducted from support payments. In addition, untagged and unregistered calves could be deemed unfit for the food chain because their traceability cannot be guaranteed, and that would render them valueless. Fortunately my friend only had a couple of anomalies that he rectified.

Inspecting ear-tags involves restraining the cattle in a crush. That may conjure up images of them being treated in the same was as a scrap car, but it's nothing like that. It's basically a strong, metal crate, a bit longer than a big cow with sides that are about 1.5m high. At the front is a catching yoke that closes, not too tightly, on the animal's neck to stop it pulling its head back. At the back of the crush is a strong metal gate or door which slams into place as soon as the animal is in and stops it backing out at a rate of knots.

The crush is fixed at the end of a narrow passage or race that prevents animals from turning round, leaving going forward the only option. Most cattle calmly go into the crush, although younger ones that have maybe only experienced it a couple of times can be nervous.

Then there are the older, "dour" brutes that stubbornly stand their ground and refuse to move forward. I can tell you from bitter experience that trying to push a half-tonne animal forward is an impossible task.

Occasionally a "head-banger" comes along that may attempt to jump out of the penning, lash out with their hind hooves at the stockmen behind them, or even charge at the people handling them. Once identified, many farmers dispose of such temperamental cattle at the first opportunity, as, apart from other considerations, they represent a danger to those working with them.

Temperamental heifers can turn nasty when they first calve, or later in life as cows, and charge at stockmen to protect their newborn calves. As most farmers work alone, particularly during the night, that could prove fatal.

One way to select calm cattle for breeding purposes is by the position of the hair whorl on the forehead. Research has shown that cattle with a round hair whorl located above their eyes became significantly more agitated when restrained in a crush compared to cattle with a hair whorl located either between or below their eyes.

Nowadays cattle aren't as temperamental as those I remember my father keeping, such as hardy, out-wintered Galloways. That's one of our native breeds, that grow shaggy winter coats of longish black hair, that used to be as wild as heather.

I have seen one go into a crush at 50 miles an hour, smash the yoke and gate and carry on into the distance with bits of it hanging around her neck.

Fortunately most farmers nowadays have sturdier crushes and quieter cattle.