Sir, – Our harvest is over, our corn crop was very good this year and for some reason it was tall and thick to the extent that the mower was labouring cutting it.

We had to cut it green, as we cannot let it get ripe because the geese will flatten it and dirty it, and the crofters that will allow the crop to ripen for seed will have to patrol it night and day to keep the birds out!

It is also the time of year that people will be putting orders to feed suppliers if they want to give supplement feed to calves and lambs.

My own experience from last year, we were feeding 150 lambs for slaughter and we put an order to a feed mill in the north of Scotland. The feed was delivered to us in tote bags that had the logo of different mills from an agent of the mill where we placed the order and on the top of each tote was a product statement.

As we started feeding our lambs, despite weighing each week they were not putting on weight, so we increased the amount of feed – but that didn’t work. Eventually we phoned the mill and asked what is this product supposed to do?

Imagine my surprise when the girl on the phone said: “That product code is not on our system.”

So anyone can put a bit of paper into a bag? Trust is a great thing if it is respected by both. We had to get supplies from a mill in the south and by God the lambs took off then! I still wonder what rubbish I got, despite me trying to resolve what I was supplied with all I got were untruths and fob offs

With hindsight, I should have retained a sample from each tote and sent it for test, as anyone can write a story on a bit of paper. I think I learnt a lesson, as we all know there are many scams how to get rich nowadays

If anyone is interested, our best grade selling to Scotbeef was £114, and was Blackie entire lambs from traditional rams, not the millionaire variety with horns growing from the top of their heads!

Angus A Macdonald

Balivanich,

Benbecula.