The IFA and the UFU met on the issue of bluetongue on Tuesday. \ Philip Doyle
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The IFA’s animal health chair David Hall maintains that farmers in Northern Ireland are just as keen as their colleagues down south to see the cross-border trade in live cattle not destined for immediate slaughter to resume.
Northern buyers are reportedly particularly eager to regain access to southern markets for dairy stock and store cattle, which are not currently permitted to cross the border, Wall said after the IFA met with the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) on Tuesday.
“There is a workaround on allowing movement of these to start again but it all hinges on Scotland,” Wall told the Irish Farmers Journal.
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“Scotland is currently bluetongue free but there is a danger that they could stop live exports from Northern Ireland if the north-south trade resumed without disease zones being in place, but if Scotland was on board, they could issue a derogation.
“But there is a danger that without that derogation, opening the north-south trade while shutting off Scotland to northern lamb would be robbing Peter to pay Paul.
“It would see northern lambs that would usually travel through Scotland to England for slaughter added to the Irish market’s supply.”
There have been two further cases of the bluetongue-3 detected south of the border over recent days taking to six the number of farms on which the virus has been detected.
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The IFA’s animal health chair David Hall maintains that farmers in Northern Ireland are just as keen as their colleagues down south to see the cross-border trade in live cattle not destined for immediate slaughter to resume.
Northern buyers are reportedly particularly eager to regain access to southern markets for dairy stock and store cattle, which are not currently permitted to cross the border, Wall said after the IFA met with the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) on Tuesday.
“There is a workaround on allowing movement of these to start again but it all hinges on Scotland,” Wall told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“Scotland is currently bluetongue free but there is a danger that they could stop live exports from Northern Ireland if the north-south trade resumed without disease zones being in place, but if Scotland was on board, they could issue a derogation.
“But there is a danger that without that derogation, opening the north-south trade while shutting off Scotland to northern lamb would be robbing Peter to pay Paul.
“It would see northern lambs that would usually travel through Scotland to England for slaughter added to the Irish market’s supply.”
There have been two further cases of the bluetongue-3 detected south of the border over recent days taking to six the number of farms on which the virus has been detected.
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