It’s an important time for livestock farmers across the country and NFU Scotland’s Livestock Committee has been working relentlessly to ensure that key decisions are being made in the best interests of members to shape, secure and drive a strong, sustainable and prosperous sector both in the short, medium and long-term writes NFU Scotland Policy Manager Lisa Hislop.
The Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity Jim Fairlie MSP made some positive announcements for the beef sector at our NFU Scotland Autumn Conference last week.
We were pleased to hear that the Scottish Government will not be changing the Calving Interval (CI) conditionality for the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme (SSBSS) in 2026. We have advocated that the CI set for the 2025 scheme year should remain at 410 days to allow farmers and crofters to settle into the new conditionality, providing some stability as we continue through the Agricultural Reform Route Map. We must bear in mind that there is still the potential for the Scottish Government to reduce the CI threshold by 10 days in 2027.
The announcement was particularly welcome ahead of our NFU Scotland members’ webinar tonight (Tuesday 29 November) that will look at Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme (SSBSS) Reform. This webinar, which starts at 7pm, is part of our Policy Unpacked Webinar Series and will give members an overview of the new conditionality to the SSBSS so that they are clear on what they need to do to access SSBSS moving forward. It will also provide an opportunity for our members to ask any questions about the reform to Hugh Fraser, Livestock Committee Chair, Gavin Hill, SAC Senior Beef Consultant, and myself.
Minister Fairlie confirmed that the funding for MyHerdStats would be continued for another year. This is a fantastic, free, herd performance tool which enables cattle farmers to get access to in-depth data on their own herd.
The importance of data was something highlighted by the highly regarded Dr John Gilliland OBE when he addressed NFU Scotland’s Autumn Conference last week. It is essential that farmers and crofters have access to their data to make informed, bespoke decisions to help with productivity, profitability and efficiency.
The Minister also referred to Bovine EID’ a longstanding workstream for the Livestock Committee.
Again, it was reassuring to hear that Scottish Government will be backing UHF as its preferred option. This is something which Scotland has pioneered the way in, facilitated via ScotEID who have been instrumental through their industry trials and research.
Committee member Robert Neill kindly hosted Minister Fairlie at Upper Nisbett Farm earlier this year to demonstrate benefits of UHF to improve livestock management, business efficiencies, on-farm safety and save costs.
While it is good to have the backing of Scottish Government for UHF, the industry needs more detail about when this will happen.
There is a fantastic opportunity for Scottish Government to maintain this momentum and deliver bEID. We have been clear that we would like to see a timetable for the introduction of bEID as soon as possible.