I LEFT school at 15 a long time ago, in the month of June and by September I was in the byre milking cows twice daily as my father’s dairyman had broken his arm.

One of the first things I did was install a radio with two speakers, much to my father’s displeasure, as he said I could not hear if the pulsators were working alright, over the noise from my wireless!

My reason for setting up the radio was to hear the morning 6 o’clock news bulletin. Ten years later, I erected a radio into the milking parlour which I listened to for the next 40 years and for the last 12 years I have heard ‘Good-morning Scotland’ from the tractor radio on a feed wagon.

For the first time in all those years, I am now turning it off after I have heard the news headlines, because I am sick fed up listening to all the crap and garbage coming from politicians about Brexit and the stupidity of another referendum!

It is a long time since I fell out with Margaret Thatcher over her destruction of the milk boards, but I agree with Prime Minister Theresa May’s view that we should be negotiating this divorce from the EU as an United Kingdom!

I was in the company of four others recently who were discussing the afore-mentioned and how they would be voting next time.

Interestingly, all five of us who voted SNP last time were changing to Conservative and all were strongly opposed to any referendum.

Many years ago and on more than one occasion, I mooted in this column that the UK should become a Federal State, with Westminster becoming the English Parliament and the other three continue as they were, ie Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Abolish the House of Lords completely, to be replaced with an elected federal government. Sadly, it will not happen, as the gravy train is too good and there is no chance of turkeys voting for Christmas!

We have had surprises with the Brexit vote and Trump's election, but much closer to home, here in Central Scotland, in the auctioneering world, shock waves abounded as the news of the first ever lady livestock auctioneer in Scotland, Primrose Beaton, was moving on to head up the store cattle division at Lanark Market.

Taught by the master of the store business in Scotland, Robin Tough, she could not have had a better mentor – so she will know every trick in the book, plus all the ones outside it!

I am sure she will relish the challenge and if I was a betting man the odds must be well in her favour of becoming the first female managing director of a Scottish auction market.

She certainly has plenty of well-wishers on this new journey. Being able to work with her ‘Jack Russell traits’ will be a challenge for some, but, like Robin, she always ends with a smile.

Something that was not a surprise was the announcement that cattle numbers in Scotland are at their lowest for 50 years. I am predicting that the fall is going to continue for the foreseeable future.

The largest decline has been in the dairy sector. Once the engine room of Scottish agriculture, it is now a mere shadow of its former self.

Take the island of Bute as an example. When the SMMB was terminated in 1995, there were 40 dairy farms producing milk. When Dunallan, Kerrytonlia and Bruchag stop in a few weeks’ time, Bute will only have nine dairy farms left.

When James McAlister, from Bruchag, sells off his Ayrshires (a herd that dates back to 1850s) and Robert Macintyre sells his herd (the second oldest Friesian herd in Scotland), a chapter of milk production on the island will come to an end. It's a trend which is sadly mirrored throughout Scotland.

Another aspect that has emerged in recent weeks that can only harm dairy farms even more, is the idea that supermarkets should be selling ‘free range milk’!

What are the specifications or definition of ‘free range milk’? How does it qualify as ‘free range milk’?

Have the cows to be at grass for a certain number of days, or do they have to be allowed outside access every day?

And what about the ever-increasing number of cows being milked by robots, where only very few of them will have outside access?

The same applies to the large dairy units which are now the norm. And is there to be another group of tankers picking up the milk to add to the current fleet of vehicles we see across the country. That’s the downside.

Is the upside going to be 10p per litre more for ‘free range milk’, which means, here we go again – another level of division between producers! How crazy is this milk production business going to become?

Regarding milk cows, after reading The SF's publication of the results of H and H’s Dairy Expo show results, I was somewhat confused by the pictures of the various champions and to which breed they belonged!

We have known for some time that the shape of all dairy breeds is now almost indistinguishable. What is now confusing is their colour!

The Shorthorn looked like an Ayrshire and the Ayrshire picture certainly had no colour traits that one would expect to see in this mainly red and white breed!

Now to some statistics which may not help ‘free range milk’. I have been telling many people that this winter’s low rainfall is not good news.

Here in North Lanarkshire I have just recorded the driest winter, from October to the end of March, in 30 plus years.

My annual average is 38 inches with the past 10 years' of winter averaging 21 inches and the one just past has had only 14 inches.

I do not have a clue what the next six months have in store for us, but I can tell you that my wettest year was 2002 at 49 inches and our driest 2003 at 25.75 inches.

Our rainfall will obviously end up somewhere in between those figures, but my hunch is that it does not bode well for a dry summer! Let’s hope I am wrong!

All my farming life the only time we make any respectable margins is when our product is scarce. So, why are numbers of cattle decreasing? The answer is easy – because margins are so unacceptably low.

What chances have they of improving? They are slim. The reality is that we are and have been for some time, operating in a volatile market with absolutely no stability. This means that, in most cases, there is no confidence to invest in any form of expansion.

Having said that, there are a few I know who have recently made large investments in expansion, largely due to the motivation of the next generation in their 30s and 40s. They are committed to farming, which reminds me that the average age of today’s farmers is around 60, and that has not changed since I left the school, the same number of years ago!

Another major reason for the reduction in livestock numbers is the increase in bio-digesters which are largely to blame for the increase in feed costs. Not only for cattle, but pigs and poultry are also being caught up in the same spiral.

South of the Border is equally serious, especially down the east side of England, where thousands of tonnes of grain and straw are being burned, plus the vegetable waste, that is no longer available for the large feed lots in Lincolnshire.