Sheep industry makes plea for export certainty
“The EU wants our lamb and we want to sell it to them” – that was the message being given out by Scottish sheep producers at one of Europe’s largest lamb sales yesterday.
And farmers and crofters used the sale at Lairg – which is traditionally viewed as a barometer for the year’s trade in the store sheep market – as a platform to call on politicians to deliver some muchneeded certainty to the sector.
NFU Scotland said that the prospect of leaving Europe without a Brexit deal – and the consequent imposition of a 40 per cent tariff on lamb exports would have huge implications for a sheep sector which saw around 30 per cent of its annual production go to the continent.
Speaking from the United Auctions sale, which sees 14,000 North Country Cheviot lambs go under the hammer, NFU Scotland’s LFA committee chairman Robert Macdonald said:
“For many of the farmers and crofters selling here today, this is the most important day of the year.
“For them, the glass is still half-full. There is a lot of grass about and there is always a strong demand for the high-quality, high-health lambs at this sale. However, the lambs bought here today are to be finished on farms the length and breadth of the UK and will not be ready for market until after our scheduled exit from Europe.
Macdonald – a hill farmer from Grantown-onspey – said that the terms of that exit were crucial:
“With the pound at current levels, Scottish lamb exports to Europe are very competitive. The EU wants our lamb, and we want to sell it to them. But that competitive position would be seriously undermined were huge tariffs to be placed on the export trade in the event of a no deal.”
Stating that cash flow was crucial to such businesses he welcomed the Scottish Government’s decision to make support payments available before the Brexit date as being a “serious boost” to the rural economy.
However he added that hill sheep farmers were also highly reliant on Less Favoured Area Support which is set to be substantially reduced over the next two years:
“As things stand, LFA payments for the 2019 scheme, due in spring 2020, are to fall to 80 percent of their LFASS 2018 levels – reducing the LFASS budget of £65 million by some £13m.
“By the LFASS 2020 scheme year, the cut in funding would be 60 percent from 2018 levels.”
He said that the Scottish Government had made plain its intention to maintain LFA payments at their current levels – but added that hill farmers and crofters needed that commitment to be confirmed as a matter of urgency.
While trade remained relatively buoyant for wether lambs at the sale yesterday, demand for ewe lambs hit the buffers, with prices falling back on the year.
Speaking from the sale yard, Donald Young, regional managing director for United Auctions’ North of Scotland operations said that market uncertainty together with buyers stocking up on females for breeding their own replacements in recent years meant that demand was back for breeding lambs.
The sale of 13,000 mainly North Country Cheviots saw wether lamb averages rise £0.93 on the year to stand at £52.07 – while the ewe lambs averaged £59.51, a fall of £17.03 on last year’s figure.
In line with the 2018 sale there had been a noticeable shortage of buyers from south of the border, with the majority of the sheep sold remaining in Scotland, heading to Aberdeenshire, Fife and Scotland’s central belt.
Top prices in the wether sectionsawsouthbalkeith, Tain make £66.50 for Park Cheviots, while £65.50 was made for hill cheviots from Cartomie, East Ammut and £67 for Beltex crosses from Auchentool Cottage, Kinbrace.
In the ewe lambs, Dunbeath Farms topped the sale at £130, with Duible Cottage, Kildonan making £120 and Armadale Farm, Armadale topping at £115.
“With the pound at current levels, Scottish lamb exports to Europe are very competitive”
ROBERT MACDONALD