Assessor for Perth and Kinross v The Scottish Milk Marketing Board
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 27 December 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 11. |
| Date | 27 December 1962 |
| Court | Lands Valuation Appeal Court (Scotland) |
Lands Valuation Appeal Court.
Lord Patrick. Lord Sorn. Lord Kilbrandon.
Valuation—Subjects—Exclusion from the Roll—Agricultural buildings—Cattle breeding centre—Buildings used for the extraction and processing of bulls' semen—Whether "used solely in connexion with agricultural operations thereon"—Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act, 1956 (4 and 5 Eliz. II, cap. 60), sec. 7 (2).
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Sec. 7 of the Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act, 1956, provides,inter alia, as follows:—
"(2) In this section— "
“agricultural lands and heritages” means any lands and heritages used for agricultural … purposes only … but does not include any buildings thereon other than agricultural buildings …;
“agricultural buildings” means buildings … occupied together with agricultural lands and heritages … and …, used solely in connexion with agricultural operations thereon; …
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(3) No agricultural lands and heritages shall be entered in the valuation roll …
A cattle breeding centre consisted of some twenty-five acres of fields and a stock of twenty-five bulls. The buildings at the centre consisted of a dungshed, a hayshed, bull stalls, bull pens, a store for feeding stuffs, a service court (where semen was extracted from the bulls), a laboratory (where the semen was tested, processed and prepared for dispatch), a wash-up (where the containers for the semen were washed and sterilised), three offices and a garage (which housed, in addition to a tractor, two vehicles which were used by a person who was not on the staff of the centre, but who was concerned with the distribution of the semen). The Assessor excluded from the Roll only the fields, hayshed and dungshed.
Held that (1) the bull stalls, bull pens and store for feeding stuffs should also be excluded from the Roll since they were buildings used solely in connexion with the agricultural operation of housing and maintaining cattle which was carried on at the centre; (2) the service court (dub. Lord Sorn), laboratory, wash-up and offices should enter the Roll since (i) they were buildings used in connexion with the business of obtaining and processing semen which was not an agricultural operation, and (ii), in any event, they were not used solely in connexion with agricultural operations carried out at the centre; and (3) the garage should enter the Roll, since its use must be determined by the use made of the vehicles which it housed and these were not used solely in connexion with agricultural operations at the centre.
Thompson v. Milk Marketing Board, [1952] 2 Q. B. 817,distinguished.
Question whether "agricultural lands and heritages" includes buildings.
At a meeting of the Valuation Appeal Commitee for the Joint County of Perth and Kinross, held on 1st August 1962, the Scottish Milk Marketing Board appealed against an entry in the Valuation Roll for the year ending Whitsunday 1962 relating to certain buildings at their Cattle Breeding Centre, Newlands, Perth, of which they were both owners and occupiers. They contended that all these buildings were agricultural buildings and, as such, should not have been included in the Roll. The Committee having sustained the appeal, the Assessor expressed dissatisfaction and asked for a case to be stated on appeal to the Lands Valuation Appeal Court.
The case stated that the following facts were admitted or were held by the Committee to be proved or within the knowledge of the Committee:—"(1) The total area of land held in connexion with the cattle breeding centre (hereinafter referred to as “the centre”) extends to 29.2 acres. Of these 27.5 acres are fields used for pasture and the growing of hay crops, and the remaining 1.7 acres consist of the sites of various buildings and access roadways. (2) The buildings consist of a large bull shed with various smaller buildings, adjoining, consisting of feeding stores, isolation boxes, offices and laboratory, lavatories, service court, store, hay shed, dung shed, and garage. These buildings are larger in number and in size than would normally be required for rearing dairy or beef cattle on a farm of comparable size, but are of a size which might reasonably be expected if the farm were operated for some other farming purposes. (3) In the laboratory the semen is cooled after collection, tested and processed. The main other work in the laboratory is the sterilisation and preparation of glassware containers for the semen and the preparation of a diluting fluid for use with the semen. In the garage are kept a tractor and two cars. One car is used in the course of his employment by the chief inseminator who is attached to the distribution centre at Perth, and who is not on the staff of the centre. The other car is a spare one for use as a relief or in the event of breakdowns. About one half of the working time of the chief inseminator is spent transporting semen from the centre to Perth and performing other duties at the centre and the remaining one-half of his time is spent carrying out inseminations on farms in the area. (4) The stock consists of twenty-six bulls, two teaser cows and one heifer. The number of bulls and cows may vary slightly from time to time. All of the bulls kept in the centre are tested for fertility purposes before their arrival there. Bulls are never brought to the centre for testing. (5) The staff consists of the manager, one stockman, one under stockman, two girls in the laboratory, and one clerk in the office. (6) The business of the centre is the extraction of semen from the said bulls to be used for the artificial insemination of cows. About one hundred extractions take place each month and the semen is despatched in special containers every day, except Sundays, to the Scottish Milk Marketing Board's distribution centre in Perth, Stirling and Edinburgh, from which the semen is sent to farms throughout east and central Scotland. No insemination takes place at the centre. There are two other similar cattle breeding centres in Scotland at Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, and at Chapel Cross in Aberdeenshire. Artificial insemination of cows has taken place in Scotland since the late 1940's and is presently used by about seventy-five per centum of the farming community in the area of the centre. The area served by the centre embraces the East of Scotland, from the Borders in the south to Kincardineshire in the north and a central area extending throughout Scotland over to Loch Lomondside. (7) In addition, semen from bulls on farms in the area is tested in the laboratory as a consultant service to practising veterinary surgeons. This testing which consists of examination under a high-powered microscope occupies a very small proportion of the time of the laboratory and takes on an average some two or three hours perweek. In such cases the bulls from which the semen is taken are not brought to the centre. Correspondence about this consultant service is dealt with in the general office. This service is provided as a courtesy to veterinary surgeons and is not a major part of the operations at the centre. (8) A charge is made to farmers for semen supplied and the centre is carried on as a commercial business. The operations of the cattle breeding centre are controlled by the Artificial Insemination of Cattle (Scotland) Regulations, 1957. (9) Apart from the...
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