Bad weather has forced farmers in Orkney to sell cattle at a loss.
Local farmers asked Orkney Auction Mart to host a sale of stock cattle on Monday because poor weather conditions have made putting livestock out on the fields impossible.
The young cows would normally be sold at the end of a summer of grazing outside, but farmers were worried that the livestock would tear up valuable pasture.
Local farmer and livestock agent Liam Muir said last month there had been “about two and a half times” the normal rainfall, leaving fields more wet than they were in November last year.
“I’ve been speaking to a lot of the older farmers and nobody can remember a worse year”, explained auctioneer Jim Linklater.
“1979 was very bad, but at least it came later in the year so people were able to get their barley out in the springtime, but this year there has hardly been a chance to sow barley”.
A combination of poor grass growth and a shortage of silage forced many farmers to lose money on underweight cattle.
Mr Linklater said: “The farmers are going to lose money because the price per head is going to be less than it would have been if they had sold them in September or October but if they don’t have grass for them, what can you do?
“I would hope it’s a one off situation and we don’t see it repeated for many years. They’re cutting their losses but if they don’t have the grass and the ground is very wet, the cattle are going to do a lot of damage to the ground. That is going to cost a lot of money to re-seed and sort out.
However, in the circumstances that they find themselves in, Mr Muir thinks local farmers will be happy, despite wanting to keep their livestock longer in order to add more value to them.
Mr Muir described the prices of the day’s sale as “fairly good” and added “there were a lot of buyers from south obviously, but really the trade was really quite reasonable, certainly better than expected”.
Considering the unusual time of year for stock cattle selling, Mr Linklater was also surprised by the “excellent” prices of the livestock he sold.
In total, 574 store cattle went under the hammer at Orkney Auction Mart.
Stores sold to 278.3p a kilo for six Charolais stots weighing 345kg from Driver & Co, Newark, Sanday, while a top price of £1,290 was achieved for a Limousin from Muir & Sons, Gorn, Shapinsay.