Public good of hill sheep farming put to the fore

This year’s Teagasc hill sheep conference, held last week in the Glendalough Hotel, Co Wicklow, acknowledged the positive role the sector plays in maintaining the fabric of rural Ireland.

While discussions around potential returns from sheep farming show lowland systems as having the potential to generate a relatively positive gross margin, this is more challenging in a hill sheep environment and particularly on harder hills with an absence of green grazing.

This was acknowledged by Teagasc director Professor Gerry Boyle, who said low output and often depressed markets have resulted in low margins in recent years.

He said the Scottish Blackface and Cheviot breeds which populate much of Ireland’s hill landscape are hardy and resilient breeds that are hugely responsive to improved nutrition.

There is untapped potential for these ewes in both a hill and lowland environment, he said.

Farming the hills as far as I’m concerned is a public good and needs to be rewarded

The low returns mean hill farms are reliant on direct payments, with Prof Boyle emphasising schemes need to be tailored to the hills while also supporting farmers.

“The hill sheep sector plays an important role in the economic health of rural economies and the maintenance of the natural landscape in Ireland’s most scenic areas,” he said.

“Farming the hills as far as I’m concerned is a public good and needs to be rewarded.”

This view was echoed by speakers in a panel discussion on how the marketing of hill lambs can be improved including Kenmare Mart manager Dan McCarthy, Connemara hill sheep farmer and vice-president of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) Brendan Joyce, and Irish Country Meats Navan general manager James Smyth.

Marketing 50,000 plus sheep in Kenmare Mart

Dan McCarthy told farmers throughput in Kenmare since he took up the position of mart manager in 2004 has increased from approximately 25,000 sheep and 5,000 cattle annually to 54,500 sheep and 8,500 cattle in 2018. A large percentage of throughput is store animals meaning the trade is heavily reliant on having a good portfolio of customers.

This is an area in which the mart has invested a lot of time in recent years and a large percentage of store lambs are traded for finishing on farms in the midlands and east of the country. Dan said the secret to repeat business is supplying finishers with the type of lambs they require. He said there is great potential to develop arrangements between farmers in hill areas and finishers in other parts of the country.

Older farmers like myself will probably continue to farm as long as they’re able but I don’t know if the next generation will go to the hill with ewes

“Many farmers are producing smaller numbers so the mart’s links with store lamb finishers benefits them greatly,” he said. “It provides access to a much wider customer base and the auction system ensures farmers receive the best price on the day.

“Farmers have really caught on to the opportunity and we have seen a big improvement in the way lambs are presented, with lambs presented in uniform batches capable of securing higher returns.”

Also a part-farmer running a flock of 200 ewes, Dan is worried that if more is not done to reward farmers for maintaining the hill and mountain environment there will be a generation of farmers lost. “Older farmers like myself will probably continue to farm as long as they’re able but I don’t know if the next generation will go to the hill with ewes or if they will just farm the lower ground and let the hills go wild. I suppose you can’t blame them if the return isn’t in it but it would be an awful shame to be looking back in years to come and regretting not taking steps to help keep farms viable and facing into an impossible situation of trying to get farmers and sheep back onto the hills”.

In the absence of a worthwhile support scheme, Dan said a minimum price of €70 would be required for store lambs to justify putting ewes in lamb. “The €10 ewe scheme is a help but with prices where they’re at it would need to be a multiple of this. Other schemes like TAMS also have to be welcomed but the application process is difficult for hill sheep farmers with the Department advising one thing and the national parks another. [The application process] needs to be made simpler as making life easier and reducing labour through fencing or improved handling systems will be vital in keeping farmers on the hill.”

Opportunity to achieve greater clarity on policy issues

Brendan Joyce said one of the greatest challenges facing hill sheep farmers is alignment of policy and in particular between what the National Parks and Wildlife Service see as good environmental practice under the Birds and Habitats Directive and what the Department of Agriculture views as good agricultural practice under cross-compliance.

Brendan said that with the right appetite to align policy across the two organisations and a greater acknowledgement of the issues facing those farming in hill and mountain areas there is the potential to achieve growth in the hill sheep sector and ensure high amenity areas are adequately maintained.

We have seen farmers actively farming commonage areas at a disadvantage when it comes to schemes like GLAS or the Organic Farming Scheme

Brendan said that while many people point to hill sheep systems as having low levels of output, it is the opposite case: “If the hill sheep sector’s output rightly took into account their public good contribution they are among some of the most productive farmers in Europe.”

Other policy alterations highlighted by Brendan include aligning agri-environmental schemes to the constraints in farming in commonage arrangements.

“We have seen farmers actively farming commonage areas at a disadvantage when it comes to schemes like GLAS or the Organic Farming Scheme. One person may be interested but because there has to be collective agreements some farmers have found it impossible to join.”

In his role as vice-president of the INHFA, Brendan has been heavily involved in the Atlantic Hill lamb brand, an initiative between the INHFA and Kepak Group which has been supported by Bord Bia. The first lambs were marketed in July 2018 with more than 16,000 lambs processed and marketed to date.

He said the initiative will not do away with challenges facing the marketing of hill lambs but that it is a good alternative option for lambs failing to reach French weight. He says it was particularly beneficial in 2018 with drought reducing demand for store lambs and leaving primary producers with fewer options.

Lambs are marketed within a 10kg to 15kg carcase weight range with a minimum conformation and fat score of O2 or better. Brendan said one of the greatest learning curves has been meeting these carcase requirements, with many farmers accustomed to selling lambs live. He encouraged any farmer considering going down a finishing route to take advantage of the in-depth research carried out in Teagasc Athenry on finishing hill lambs and to make a visit to the centre or other farms to gain a physical experience of handling suitably finished lambs.

Breeding policy

Brendan, along with his wife Fiona and children Heather and Aonghus, is the 10th generation of his family farming in Connemara and the third generation on his farm.

The farm is predominately hill commonage with five shareholders, four of whom are actively farming.

The commonage is a mixture of dry and wet heath and blanket bog designated SAC, SPA and NHA. There are 480 Mayo/Connemara-type ewes run alongside a small herd of Black Galloway and Blue Grey cows (Black Galloway crossed with a white Shorthorn bull).

I could crossbreed and increase the number of lambs produced per ewe in the short term but I would quickly run into a scenario of ewes not wanting to graze the hill

Brendan said the greatest concern for his flock is breeding a ewe with good longevity, an ability to graze year round on a rough grazing platform and rear one lamb with as little inputs as possible. The flock has been run as a closed flock with no females purchased since 1951. Selection of rams has focused on their suitability to the environment.

He said there are few options available to him in terms of increasing ewe productivity as expanding beyond a target of one lamb per ewe would lead to a higher percentage of ewes being removed from the hill for preferential treatment and higher costs. Brendan said farmers have to consider the environment in which they are farming: “I could crossbreed and increase the number of lambs produced per ewe in the short term but I would quickly run into a scenario of ewes not wanting to graze the hill. I think profitability on a hill ewe cannot be judged on one year but rather over her lifetime.”

Hill lambs complementing seasonal production

James Smyth of ICM said there an increasing reliance on hill lambs to help balance production in a year-round supply. James said that while there may be some market opportunities for the traditional light lamb carcase, he sees this as a niche market handling small numbers and not capable of returning a higher price premium to compensate for a lighter carcase weight. He highlighted limited opportunities in markets such as Spain, Italy, Sweden and other Nordic countries but added that these markets are very demanding of specification and accustomed to light carcases with a good cover of flesh.

Therefore, he sees the best opportunity for hill lambs as being carried over and finished at a time when lowland lambs are reducing in number – namely from December to January on. James said there is a great opportunity to build on a model of lambs being purchased on to lowland farms for finishing.

More work needs to be done on quality assurance to increase participation

He highlighted that this may be especially suitable for farmers who have reduced ewe numbers with good expertise present and scope to generate a positive margin where lambs can be allowed to mature on grass-based systems.

The other area highlighted as increasing in importance was quality assurance. James said quality assurance is a prerequisite to supply Irish retailers.

“Customers have bought into Origin Green and Ireland’s environmental credentials both domestically and nationally. More work needs to be done on quality assurance to increase participation.”

He said sheep farming has a positive outlook, with demand growing in emerging markets but the 52-week supply pattern is trending in the wrong direction.

He believes there is scope to increase sheepmeat production with gaining access to the US and Chinese markets seen as two areas that would add further confidence.

There were differing views across the three speakers on the introduction of mandatory EID tagging from 1 June 2019.

James Smyth said the meat industry has been vocal in its support of full EID tagging, saying it is not only a requirement for market access into the US and China, it is also required to maintain an equal footing with other European markets which have adopted the technology.

James said ICM will be adopting the technology and are working with stakeholders towards developing a system that would allow them to work for industry and farmers. Asked if EID would return a higher price to farmers, James said he hoped it would and that the greatest benefit at present is maintaining access to high-value markets.

Dan McCarthy is in a trickier position.

He said first and foremost it is a major cost for a low-value store lamb to carry and will add significant costs to hill farmers. Dan said the mart is also not likely to be in a position to operate as a CPR due to the cost of implementing the technology and the effect it would have on intake capacity.

“It’s just not possible to take in the lambs, separate them into their lots, read them and then pen them and have all the paperwork ready for print-out during the busy sales season. Some store lamb buyers may be looking for electronically tagged lambs but I am not sure it will be workable for the mart in its current format – there needs to be some renewed thinking on the whole area.”

Brendan Joyce says the INHFA could have backed the introduction of mandatory EID tagging but says that it was only if farmers were not expected to bear the brunt of the costs.

He said it was a missed opportunity for the Department not to use unspent sheep welfare scheme funds and put in a fund that would cover or compensate farmers for the higher costs over the first number of years until EID delivered a return from the market.