It was a snowy day at Lanark Mart, with board members braving the elements from across Scotland to attend the Scottish Beef Association meeting. With a full agenda, it was straight down to business. Chair of the association Neil McCorkindale, a beef farmer from Oban, led the meeting.

Agenda

  • 1. DNA testing: First up on the agenda was a talk from Doug Bell, QMS. He discussed with the board the ‘soft consultation’ on DNA testing of all Scottish cattle in abattoirs. This would allow all beef which qualifies for the PGI status to be identified further down the food chain. Doug gave the example of how a beef steak in a London restaurant could be proven to be authentic or not. The committee was interested to hear about the proposal and wanted to know more about the cost and benefits before coming to a view on the issue.
  • 2. Beef Efficiency Scheme (BES): Next up was the BES. The much-maligned scheme was discussed on its benefits, but also its pitfalls. The board felt that it has done all it can to help the Government encourage participation.

    • “We can understand why farmers are not excited about it and regret that more was not done at the outset to allow it to hit the ground running, instead of negativity being allowed to set in,” Neil McCorkindale said. “It is especially danming of the scheme that so many farms are already doing efficiency measures and still not signing up to it. However, we accept there is no way back and it is where it is.”

  • 3. Bovine EID: Bovine EID was identified as a key priority for the beef sector at the meeting. Andrew Wright, SBA board member, advocated the benefits to the cattle sector – giving details on the reduction of clerical errors, along with improved ease of traceability.

    • “The SBA board has been fully supportive of bovine EID from the beginning. Working with the NFU and other stakeholding organisations, we feel it is realistic, with the assistance of the Government, to have this up and running for the 2019 calendar year,” said McCorkindale. “SBA board members John Bell and Andrew Wright, who also represents the Institute of Auctioneers, will continue to represent SBA at future meetings and will have heavy involvment in decisions going forward.”

  • 4. Brisket tags: The meeting went on to go over the challenge of farmers using brisket tags. SBA chair Neil McCorkindale has been working closely with the Scottish Government to come to a practical solution. The tags were outlawed under the animal welfare act of 2006. As a result, the SBA is strongly advising farmers still using brisket tags to replace them as soon as possible, in order to avoid failing compliance.
  • 5. Climate change: Neil also spoke about his recent attendance at the Scottish Government’s climate change meeting. He relayed to the SBA members how he challenged the Government to ensure that it understood the implications of so much distillery byproducts going into anaerobic digesters.

    • The members felt that the dreadful weather this year probably did much to highlight the cost and scarcity of a product that used to be readily available for beef farmers.

    The chair challenged the Government to produce figures on what plants will require in the future, instead of randomly sourcing this product as and when required, “so that the farming industry will be in some position to plan its reliability on this type of feeding, which we used to take for granted”.

  • 6. Events in 2018: While winding up the figures on another very successful Open Beef Event at Fans Farm, Earlston, in June, the search is now underway for 2018. Neil McCorkindale expressed his desire to have this in the north of the country.

    • “It is eight years since the excellent event at Corskie,” he said, adding that it was fair, if possible, to involve a farm with Charolais or Shorthorn cattle, as the last three events have been home to Simmental [ Corskie], Limousin [Mains of Mause] and Aberdeen Angus [Fans].

    Two farm walks have been planned for late January next year, one at a beef producer farm in the south and one at a farm that finishes cattle in the north.

    “Rosy McGowan of the NBA has been very active in securing sponsorship for those events and more details will be published soon,” McCorkindale said. “Those types of farm meetings have proved very successful in England and Ireland as a member recruitment drive, and hopefully it will do likewise here.”

  • 7. Beef market: The feeling from the members on the beef market was that while the price of finished cattle has remained steady, the drop in store prices in October was disappointing. But with most of the support payments now in the banks and supply still scarce, things are looking positive on the run up to Christmas. SBA continues to sponsor classes at Live Scot at Lanark and the Aberdeen Christmas Classic, and the chair and vice-chair will be on hand to present the awards in those classes.

  • 8. Any other business

    • a. The chair welcomed Wanda Hobbs, who had sat in on the meeting, onto the board. Wanda is part of the farming enterprise at Wedderlee, 2016 beef farm of the year, and, the chair jokingly concluded, daughter of former NBA board member Marion Tilson.

    b. SBA is looking for two new members on its board over the winter months.

    c. Neil McCorkindale expressed his gratitude to the Scottish Government for its willingness to engage with the industry. As things re Brexit are slowly beginning to unravel, he will be meeting again later this year with Fergus Ewing to discuss the way forward for the Scottish beef industry. Other things on the agenda will be Scotland’s convergence money, future support payments, coupled payments at least through any transitional period and the best way to halt the continued decline in beef cattle numbers, as highlighted in the Farmers Journal.

    d. The next meeting was planned for the end of January. There being no further business, the chairm thanked al in attendance and closed the meeting.