NFU Scotland Vice-President Pragmatic About Beef Herd Numbers
Scottish farmers and crofters will start to receive valuable payments as part of the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme (SSBSS) on Friday 28 March. Individual payment rates for 2024 are £111.33 for Mainland, and £155.03 for Islands.
The Scottish beef industry, with an estimated output of £849 million (QMS Red Meat Profile, 2024) is a vital cornerstone of our rural economy. The SSBSS, worth £40 million, is crucial to Scotland’s iconic beef sector. It supports farmers and crofters breeding beef calves from suckler cows and underpins Scotland’s commercial beef industry. From the overall SSBSS funding, £34 million is for eligible mainland calves and £6 million for Island calf claims.
2024 claims are the final claims to be delivered before calving interval conditionality is applied to the SSBSS. This year’s figures highlight the persistent decline in our beef herd, worryingly the total of 347,546 calves claimed across both mainland and island (309,317 and 38,229 respectively), this is almost 19,000 less calves than in 2023, representing a six percent drop on the Mainland and two percent drop on Island calves. This is underlined by 313 less businesses claiming this year vs 2023 scheme year.
NFU Scotland Vice-President, Robert Neill, commenting on the figures said, “Ultimately, we could get wrapped up in figures, but the message is clear, the reason for the decline is down to a number of factors. While trade is at record levels, the costs of inputs has not slowed down, farmers and crofters continue to operate on wafer thin margins. There is also the combination of access to labour, succession planning, historic lack of profitability, personal health.
“However, our annual intentions survey highlighted that members are more optimistic than previous years, and members are looking to increase suckler production, compared to other years which looked at maintaining or reducing production. We continue to engage with stakeholders across the whole supply chain to ensure this positivity and momentum can be maintained long-term. This includes discussions on how we can harness this increase in confidence and encourage growth in livestock numbers to ultimately underpin critical mass.
“While we welcome Scottish Government's commitment to SSBSS until 2028, we continue to ask Scottish Government to further demonstrate their long-term support and commitment to recognising the role of Scotland’s livestock sector in delivering high quality food, and delivery of public goods. We also continue to analyse and monitor the new conditionality on SSBSS.”
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Contact Diana McGowan on 07920 018619