We recently sold Struan Garabh at the Oban sale. He stood third in his class and was the highest priced Black bull at the sale. He has gone to a breeder in Aberdeenshire. They had said how much they admired the bull over the sale weekend and were particularly keen on his quiet nature.  

The 33 cattle sold to France have settled in well with the first of the in-calf cows starting to calve with a mixture of black and red calves being born. In fact one of the bulling heifers exported has produced a lovely surprise of a red heifer calf; the result of her deciding to jump 2 fences to get to the bull last summer!!!.  

Calving at Borland this year we very well with 19 heifer calves, 15 steers and two losses recorded by the end of the main calving period there are another 3 to calve later in the year.

We managed to harvest a bumper crop of whole crop oats. After cutting, the crop is allowed to wilt for 2-3 days depending on the weather. When the oats are sown, we also undersow a medium term grass & clover ley. The oats give a protective cover to the young grass & clover while it establishes. The young grass also boosts the protein and energy levels of the final crop while the oats give a much needed bulk to our harvest.

We have noticed that we can lose some of the oat seeds during mowing as the local contractor only has a mower fitted with a "conditioner " and this thrashes the crop a little. We intend to source a simple mower for next year. The cows do appear to love the wholecrop silage, and we are  to a nutritive analysis of the crop soon.

The first black calf and the first red calf born 
from the recently exported in-calf cows