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.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here