Call for action to end livestock decline

Government action needs to be taken immediately if the decline in Scotland’s livestock number is to be reversed.

Flagging up the need for urgent measures - rather than waiting for proposed pilot schemes in the post-brexit period - the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW) yesterday warned that the country’s red meat sector faced an existential threat as it stumbled towards falling below critical mass:

“The latest figures show calf registrations down by another 2%,” said SAMW president Andy Mcgowan, “and, if we wait until Brexit and transition finishes to change the system we’ll have lost another 15% of our national livestock output.”

He said that after consultation with other organisations in the livestock sector, SAMW had drawn up a four-point strategy, which he claimed could “reboot” the country’s falling livestock numbers if adopted immediately.

The call for action included:

An uplift in funding for beef calf producers – increasing funding to £250 a head this year;

A revamp the upland sheep support scheme to help compensate for likely losses in Less Favoured Area payments;

Extending Producer Organisations to all live-stock sectors–an approach which had already dramatically improved the supply chains for fruit and vegetables;

A simplification of the Beef Efficiency Scheme, seen by many as overly prescriptive and bureaucratic.

Mcgowan said that the upcoming Highland show always highlighted the skills of those involved in Scotland’s livestock sector.