SCOTLAND’S livestock farmers are going through a ‘disheartening’ ¬spell, with some of the lowest farm gate prices they have experienced in several years compounded by delays and reductions in their EU support payments ¬– but they must not lose sight of the new opportunities that lie ahead.
That was the message this week from Jim McLaren, chairman of the red meat sector promotional body Quality Meat Scotland, as he unveiled its latest plans for selling Scotch meat to the world.
Mr McLaren said he was acutely aware of the frustration being felt by the hard-working Scottish livestock producers at the bottom of the supply chain, but urged them to remember that the product they offer “could not be more different to what is produced by the majority of our overseas competitors”. With growing global demand for quality, sustainably-produced red meat, he insisted that Scotland was well placed to reap the rewards from high-value export markets.
“We have beef and lamb which benefits from our whole-of-life quality assurance schemes and full traceability,” said Mr McLaren. “It is free of growth hormones and is produced using systems where any use of antibiotics is carefully controlled.
“Our production methods are grass and forage-based and do not divert water from human consumption. These qualities would place our products in the very top price bracket in markets such as North America, yet they seem to be taken for granted by UK retailers,” he noted.
“It is essential that a larger share of the retail value finds its way back to the primary producer, or the long term availability of our world-beating products could be under threat.”
Mr McLaren also urged livestock farmers to ensure they were not so focused on the ‘pence per kilo’ they receive for their animals that they lost sight of other opportunities to improve their profitability: “While there is no doubt that the pence per kilo received is the source of the greatest frustration to farmers, the reality is it is one of the areas over which producers have least control, assuming they are producing animals to the specification the market needs.
“This is also true of a range of other factors linked to supply and demand, such as cheaper imports, exchange rates, wider market access, input costs and the weather.”
Instead of focussing on business circumstances that they cannot change, Mr McLaren called on farmers to improve profitability by concentrating on the areas over which they do have control, such as making sure their end product is what their customers are looking for in terms of carcass weight and grade.
“We can also strive to improve our herd health status still further and make the most efficient use possible of grass, our industry’s greatest natural resource.”
He added that the implementation of the wide-ranging Beef 2020 proposals would also offer farmers’ opportunities to improve their margins: “The development of an integrated and accessible database was a central recommendation and is seen as key to the delivery of improved productivity, allowing producers to track the performance of their animals through the whole of their life and beyond.
“This information will help farmers to make changes to their businesses based on sound knowledge about the effect these changes are likely to have on profitability. The Scottish Government’s new Beef Efficiency Scheme is the central mechanism for populating this database and I would encourage all producers of suckled calves to join this scheme.”
For in-depth news and views on Scottish agriculture, see this Friday’s issue of The Scottish Farmer or visit www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk
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