Captain Moonlight's Notebook: Pirocco, super bull

ONE ANIMAL that will certainly be mourned and that deserves a truly spectacular send-off is Pirocco, a great Latin lover of the cattle world who died earlier this week.

British farmers have been paying pounds 15 a time to use semen from this seven- year-old black and white Holstein bull, renowned for his ability to father strong, hard-working dairy cows with superb udders.

Pirocco Bell Blazer inseminated at least 27,225 cows last year. British farmers alone snapped up nearly 15,000 batches of semen in the last six months. But poor, poor Pirocco; he died under anaesthetic following an accident at work in Milan when he stood on a vital part of his anatomy.