Having joined various schemes to obtain subsidy payments which were critical to our existence, we were obliged to keep an agreed number of cattle. As we anticipated, we were subject to many inspections during the early years the first of which we find amusing to this day. Two inspectors arrived at the farm (one to inspect the stock and another to inspect the first inspector) and announced to Pat that they wished to check the cattle numbers. Helpfully, she suggested that would not be a problem since the cattle were gathered at a feed ring in an adjoining field. They were incredulous! Their task could only be completed by running the cattle through a race and into a cattle crush or crate which would secure their heads while the inspector noted their ear-tag numbers. We, of course, had none of these things available and we had to schedule another appointment by which time we would have been able to borrow the necessary equipment.

Each year (but one) we kept two of our heifers as replacements for the original cows. To allow us to age animals easily, Pat has given them names starting with letters for the year (apart from those where circumstances suggested other names would be more appropriate - hardly scientific): remaining so far, we have Amy and Amber in 1998, Moneypenny whose number is 007 as in Bond, Catriona, (no Ds), Ellie and Eva, Freya and F (on the theme of Bond again, being a daughter of Moneypenny), Grace and Precious - so named only because her mother found her so).

• Young Bindal who we were forced to cull in 2005. We had bought her as a calf along with her mother at a farm dispersal sale. She was an excellent animal in terms of appearance, calving ease, quality of off-spring and temperament but, out of the blue, we received a letter from the Scottish Executive to tell us that she would have to be slaughtered. Seemingly a calf brought up on the same holding at the same time as this cow when she was a calf, subsequently developed the dreaded BSE. Young Bindal's mother was considered safe as were Young Bindal's calves. Though the logic defies me, you may feel as we do, that it may have something to do with the fact that this is a procedure adopted in other European countries and we are seeking to re-enter the European market. Anyway, we still have her mother, her daughter and two of her half-sisters each of which is an excellent specimen.
• Camilla was sold at the first available sale for "over 30 month" animals born after 1996 and with effect from 7 November declared unlikely to be afflicted with BSE (after slaughter they will be tested to ensure that they are free). What had been happening was that animals over thirty months old were not allowed into the food chain. Older animals, if they have a calf, can be sold to other farmers for breeding but if they were to be slaughtered they had to be disposed of by a special scheme. Camilla did not carry a calf, but she was a young, well-built animal and we were reluctant to dispose of her by incineration. She did nothing in return for the food we provided so we were quite pleased to see her go.

We only have one of the original cows left (Panda) The other two older ones, Bindal and No 20, were bought afterwards.

Bulls

We do not own a bull, preferring instead to have one here for a short time until all the cows have been "served" (mated) and then returning him from whence he came. We have been fortunate to secure very good quality animals.

Our first bull was a limousin from the Isle of Lewis, then we had a simmental from Donald Mackenzie, Rychraggan, by Drumnadrochit. We followed that with limousins on two successive years from Dennis Fraser, Achvaich, by Beauly and for the last two years "Roger", a limousin from Robert McCall, Foindle, Sutherland has been our guest. We shall have to change Roger next year since his off-spring will be ready for mating.

Obviously we arrange for the calving to take place over as short a period as possible so we were disappointed to discover when we arrived that another bull had paid an unscheduled input to our herd. Shortly after we arrived here, we found a Simmental bull belonging to Hugh McCulloch in with our cows. We had no idea at the time if he caught one or more but discovered later that he had indeed caught several. He was either there for some time unnoticed by his owner, or he was very active indeed!