Pasture at the heart of standard

A new benchmarking initiative aimed at livestock farmers who are keen to understand the relationship between carbon, meat production and profit will have pasture-based livestock production at its core.

Seven new “Sustainable Red Meat Action Groups” will be set up across the country by Quality Meat Scotland to let producers share and compare farm performance and carbon credentials.

With four meetings a year planned over three years, QMS said that the group would have the opportunity to visit members’ farms and hear from technical experts on topics such as grazing management, soil health and alternative livestock production systems.

Using easy to measure physical benchmarking data, the group members would also be able to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of their livestock enterprise and compare them with other group members.

“Building on the success of the QMS “Graze +” and “Better Grazing” programmes that were aimed at those keen to learn more about improving their grazing management, the SRMA groups will allow for peer-to-peer discussion groups focused on improving individual businesses,” said John Evans, QMS knowledge transfer specialist.

He said the first meetings would be held later in the year virtually or on farm once lockdown had been eased, in the initiative which he said was designed to “take grazing management to the next step”. “Feedback from farmers who attended the QMS Better Grazing groups indicated that many were interested in looking at benchmarking and carbon audits in more detail. They were also keen to analyse the financial impact of the changes they make,” said Evans.