Archived News

12th April 2010

A Belted Galloway heifer gave birth to her first calf this afternoon at Hackhurst.  From a distance I think it is a bull calf but we’ll know for sure in a day or so when the calf is ear tagged.

I’m beginning to wonder how the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) decides upon which farms to inspect across the country.  There must be thousands of farms in the UK but it seems as though we are ‘picked at random’ (by a human or a computer?) on a very regular basis for inspections.

In February the RPA sent the Environment Agency to carry out a Cross Compliance Inspection.  Although we endeavour to have all our records maintained and up to date throughout the year, it always takes a couple of days to get the relevant paperwork out and ready for the day-long inspection.  The Cross Compliance Inspection included: fertiliser records, the manure management plan and manure records, nitrogen vulnerable zone records, fuel storage and chemical store inspection, to name but a few areas of our work checked over with a fine tooth comb.

Today the RPA left a message saying they want to undertake a Cattle Identification Inspection on our farm next week; last time they did that particular inspection it took a week to complete. There is never a good time for an inspection, but next week has got to be one of the worst. 

Bearing in mind that Laurence has to complete the accounts; spend a couple of days and nights preparing for next week’s quarterly finance meeting; run a farm and have his foot broken (by a doctor) and put in plaster next week, you can imagine that he’s not exactly delighted to have been chosen at random,  yet again!

Not only will our staff have to carry out their normal work, which is essential animal husbandry, they will also be required to gather up any or all of our cattle, at stages through the week at the request of the inspector who will be checking cattle passports and ID tags. One small error in a document can result a fine of thousands of pounds.