Weather extremes cause drop in livestock figures

The number of cattle in Scotland has fallen to a sixty year low, official figures revealed yesterday.

In June 2018, there were 1.76 million cattle in the country, a 2 per cent drop on the previous year and the lowest count since 1957, according to the results of the June agricultural census which were published yesterday.

Numbers which have been dropping since the peak of 2.68 million in 1974, fell by a further 1 per cent in the beef herd and 2 per cent in the dairy herd last year.

There was also a 2 per cent drop in the number of calves born in the last year.

The weather is likely to have played a significant role in the continued decline, according to the country’s Chief Statistician, with the long 201718 winter exhausting livestock farmers’ feed stock – and the dry summer weather reducing the amount of grass grown for feed.

The grass shortage had also led to animals being slaughtered earlier or in higher quantity as farmers moved to reduce their cattle numbers to save on feed costs.

Scotland’s sheep sector also saw a weather-driven decline in numbers – the first fall for the past five years. At the time of the census there were 6.59 million sheep in Scotland, a drop of 6 per cent on the previous year.

Scottish lamb numbers hit their lowest point since 2013, down by 8 per cent to 3.1 million, with the “Beast from the East” and general poor weather impacting on the numbers.

The number of ewes used for breeding also hit a record low, falling by 4 per cent to 2.6 million over the past year.

Poor weather affected most areas of agriculture with the overall cereal acreage being back by 3 per cent and a slight fall in the area of potatoes also being recorded. Rye crops bucked the general trend and while the area grown was still a relatively modest 5,800 ha, the 14-fold increase in production since 2014 has been driven mainly by demand for anaerobic digestor plant feedstock.

The overall area of soft fruit, which with the growth in the use of polytunnels has become less dependent on weather conditions, saw an increase, but while this was led by an increase in the strawberry front, the area down to both rasps and blackcurrants fell.

The statistics also showed an estimated increase in poultry numbers of 2 per cent to 14.5 million chickens.

Pig numbers continued their decline since the mid 1970’s weighing in at 317,000, down 3 per cent on the year.

The area of rented agricultural land in Scotland continued its decline – accounting for 22 per cent of agricultural land in Scotland, a figure which had fallen from 28 per cent in 2008.

Agriculture continues to dominate the Scottish landscape with around 80 per cent of the area used for farming and agriculture related activity, with a total of 51,200 agricultural holdings. However the number of people estimated to be working in agriculture has decreased by 400 to 66,600 over the year.