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View from the Wellies - April 2008

Rainfall for the first 3 months of the year has been 18 inches, the annual average for the Aberfeldy area is somewhere between 38-40 inches, so this has meant a very slow start to spring field work. Only those farmers with free draining fields have been able to get crops planted.
The old method of testing a seedbed to see if it was warm enough to sow crops into was, to lower your trousers and test it with your bare backside, luckily not a site seen now in Highland Perthshire. The new, more scientific method is to wait until seedbeds warm up to 8° before sowing. The long range forecast from the Met office predicts above average temperatures for the summer, so with nearly half our rainfall total accounted for already, hopefully we won’t have a repeat of the soggy summer of 2007.

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There are many things which can make life difficult for shepherds, such as foxes attacking lambs, severe weather or disease. The latest sheep killer sounds like something from a Hitchcock movie. Flockmasters are now reporting lambs being attached and pecked to death by ravens. Ewes which are lambing have also been targeted and some had had their eyes pecked out and stomachs ripped open while lambing.
Ravens have been protected since 1954 and anyone wishing to control them by shooting has to apply for a government licence. There are thought to be somewhere between 2,500 and 6,000 breeding pairs in Scotland. The main problem seems to be young birds which hunt in packs. A very helpful local area officer from Scottish Natural Heritage, covering part of the Cairngorm area, where they are having major problems, stated that the birds were only ‘re-colonising’ ground lost from the past. This will be of little consolation to the farmers who have lost stock.

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The latest news on the Bluetongue front is that there will be a compulsory vaccination programme in Scotland next winter. The announcement was made at an industry stakeholder’s meeting on the 9 April, by Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs. Farmers themselves will be responsible for carrying out the injections, which will see cattle receiving two doses, six weeks apart and sheep and goats needing one dose. Non-compliance with the vaccination programme could result in fines of up to £5,000 or six months in jail.
It is important that all livestock are vaccinated as the wild deer population will not be protected and will act as a way of infecting animals which are not protected. Scotland’s Chief Vet Professor Charles Milne warned that there will be on-going blood testing to check that the vaccine had been administered.
The scheme is to be part funded by the Scottish Government and looks like a better option that the one in England where it is to be voluntary. Charles Milne also announced at the meeting that tests are being carried out on some of the famous Scottish midges to see if they can be vectors for the Bluetongue virus.