Sam Bales

@EdinvaleFarm Not good Jock. Hopefully you can get some answers. Are you running bloods for minerals?

Feckity bollocky twatty bastardy shitey arseholios. 😡😭 Bloody aweful scanning in all 3 groups of cows. Questions to be asked and decisions to be made! 😞

@WhitriggsStuart 👍 good going Stuart. One day I may be at your level!

Cows all scanned today. Cows 92%, heifers 88% but 1st calvers not so good at 76%. Strict 6 weeks bulling, but of everything in calf, 92% are also due in the 1st 3 weeks.

@EdinvaleFarm Always worth a try and as you say, nothing lost 👍

@sam_bales We put all the smallest heifers to the Highland bull so that if they did go on calf, likely they would be small calves. The management to calve at 2 and then again at 3 needs to be spot on and I don't think I am good enough yet for that to happen! Not lost anything with them

Sub optimal way of reducing the proportion of Highland genetics coming through the herd. 20 out of 23 cows in calf. 3 out of 7 heifers in calf.🙈 6 week bulling period. Heifers 15mo at bulling and probably below bulling weight. Do they get another spin or not?? 🤷‍♂️

@EdinvaleFarm I've found 2.5yrs is a good time to calve natives but only if your calving twice a year. Calving at 2yr old sounds great, but you do need very well grown heifers. And I'm not harsh enough to remove a lovely homebred animal from the herd for not conceiving to calve at 2 🤷🏼‍♂️

@sam_bales They have headed back to a group, whereby if I forget their history, that may very well happen. They are nice looking heifers and they were always marginal to calve at 2

@cvfarming @AgriWebb worth a look. Only been using it for a few months but very pleased with it. Used it for calving, lambing, treatments and weighing without any issues.

Current livestock app is starting to create too many problems and taking up too much time, and it's pretty awful for sheep management. Recommendations please, looking at ilivestock and herdwatch. What are users thoughts? Is one better than the other?

@EdinvaleFarm @AgriHighland @CammockSalers I do love the insight you bring as a farmer and butcher Jock 👍👍

@AgriHighland @CammockSalers Width and depth make kgs but length makes £ on the block

Cammock Sumo.. heading for Stirling next week.

@herdyshepherd1 Fair enough. Every system is different and every animal is different. I wasn't sure about Autumn but I love it now 😂

@sam_bales I’m dead against autumn calving for us - so they’ll have to drop back to the original mating date of next July

We tried an experiment with the herd and it hasn’t worked - we put a young bull with the young heifers to make them calve at 2 And they’ve either not been sexually mature enough, or he hasn’t, or we asked too much of them on the hill, and it hasn’t worked - it may be him

@Wyefarm No problem, yes very individual in terms of how animals are affected. It is testing us somewhat but I keep hoping we are through the worst of it.

@sam_bales Thank you Sam, appreciate you taking the time, so it really is individual animal specific. I hope that it gets better for you soon.

Good evening livestock folk of X. Can someone please explain to me in simple terms, the impact of Bluetongue? I get the regular updates from APHA & know it's serious, but I don't know anything about & would like to learn. TIA

@mays_farm @cvfarming Very important David! Often difficult to quantity but very easy to dismiss. Although perhaps arguably less so with the decreasing chemical toolbox. 🤔

@cvfarming Don’t ignore what stock bring to a mixed farming rotation. People who look at my crops and say you’re lucky you don’t have any blackgrass get shown the gate pretty quickly

UK lowland suckler producers; what's a viable scale? Be fascinated to know what people think! Expecting most to say it's unviable at any scale but you never know there's always the possibility someone might think differently.... Looking for the progressive thinkers 🤔

@EdinvaleFarm Your well ahead of me! I've a lot of bales to move and position.. at least they are mostly made! 😂

It's an odd feeling, but bar a few wee jobs, we are all set up for winter.

@ClynelishFarm @mad4farming @ThePasturePod Was it really 3hrs! Soon past some time turning hay! 😂

@mad4farming @ThePasturePod Just give the first hour a listen. Time well spent.

Worth the wait! I'm going to share this far & wide. One of the best pods ever 🤩👏 Every farmer or small business owner should listen. The first hour in particular, challenging our mindset & what is important to us. It resonated so much with me! open.spotify.com/episode/6KXolG…

@mendipfarmer Great bits of kit, but do take time for weeds to die, but they do! We've a tractor mounted Edlington but they no longer make them sadly.

@EdinvaleFarm Graze the wet bits, it puddles then and makes them muddy which wading birds live 👌 (obviously I don't mean trash them or the whole field..)

Next level paddocking going in here. Put up 3 snipes, oily catchers, peewits and curlew. Going to graze what will hold cattle and keep out of the wet bits which the birdies seem to like

@ClynelishFarm @johnmpringle1 Quite! 😂 What is said when working stock, stays where you were handling stock... 😬🙈

@johnmpringle1 And it is better for marriages! Less stress = happy matrimony #underestimatedbenefits

I agree 100% , you can get a simple system without breaking the bank but it makes tasks easier on man and beast, how many sheep farmers complain of bad knees or back due to poor sheep handling facilities

@johnmpringle1 This is music to my ears! I just wish I could persuade those with the purse strings that! It may also help me want to manage sheep better. Having just installed a new recording system, it's certainly made us want to keep records up to date and accurate, a positive move!

@ThrimbyFarms Exactly what it's about!! 👍 We can weigh lambs quite quickly now! 😂

Great to have the boss man out helping this morning weighing cattle. Showing off with his number skills. Family farming producing nutritious food.

@ClynelishFarm I know several small people with carpet farms who would love them! 🤣

Having a shocker this year 🙈 Another reason I shouldn't try do things in a hurry when my mind is going in 4 different directions. Or maybe it's the start of peri- menopausal chaos... Kind of thing I'm usually really sharp on, but missed the mm rather than cm bit 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️