Farmer focus, livestock:Alistair Mackintosh is honoured to be a show judge

Harvesting, silaging and selling lambs all came at once, making this last month a busy one. Harvesting has been a stop-start affair. We’ve not had two dry days together, which meant the combine had difficulty picking up a flattened crop and the straw yield, as a result, was disappointing. I’m hoping spring barley will do better. We have managed to fill the silage pit as well as make bales and that should be enough.

The ewes teeth and udders have been checked and any not fit have been sold, with the price acceptable. The real pain is about to start, as we are increasing sheep numbers, so I’m going to have to buy 300-400 ewe lambs. However, if some of the prices being quoted are actually realised, it is going to hurt. However, I would much rather be increasing numbers when prices are good. It’s all about confidence.

This Thursday sees the Westmorland County Show. It’s one of those shows that gets better every year and has maintained the right mix of town and country and is well managed by a dedicated team.

This year I was honoured to be asked to judge one of the categories that involved visiting a number of farms ranging from dairy, beef, sheep and poultry. They all had different challenges, but the enthusiasm, energy and love for what each of them did was evident. It was also infectious. Everyone embraced new technology including breeding improvements.

Also evident was their commitment to their staff and how important it was to invest in them, not only financially but also in training and to make them feel part of a valuable team. Well done to them all, it was genuinely tough to pick a winner.