The increases that come into affect from April 2010 are: cattle 93p, sheep 13p and 21p for pigs.
Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs said: “As part of its business planning process for 2010/11 and beyond, I have asked Donald Biggar, QMS chair, to explore further the scope for achieving savings and I am pleased such a commitment has been given.
“Looking to the future, I have also written to Hilary Benn requesting that we discuss urgently how a more equitable distribution of levy can be achieved by focusing on the point of production, which can result in £900,000 extra
revenue for Scotland per year. I have also instructed my officials to further explore opportunities for increasing the volume of Scottish sheep processed here in Scotland rather than down south.”
New LFA proposals
NFU Scotland is to take a new proposal on delivery of Scotland’s Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme (LFASS) to the Scottish Government, in a bid to secure a more equitable deal for all of Scotland’s LFA livestock farmers.
The union’s principal aim is to ensure that LFASS support, worth around £65m this year, rising to £71m next year, is targeted at active units in general and the most vulnerable units in particular, regardless of their location in Scotland.
The Scottish Government is committed to increase the payment rates in the Fragile and Very Fragile areas by 19% for this year and a further 19% for the 2010 scheme compared with LFASS 2008.
That has incensed farmers in LFAs not deemed fragile, (Standard areas) who received no increase. The union proposal would not impact on the existing commitment from the Cabinet Secretary.
NFU Scotland vice-president, Nigel Miller explained: “We believe our proposal would deliver uplifts in LFASS payments, from 2011, for those actively farming the more disadvantaged land in the Standard area.
“This would be achieved by moving monies from the inactive producers to the active producers, and not by shifting funds either from region to region or from sector to sector”.
l The candidates for the offices of NFUS vice-president were announced yesterday with the news that the existing office-holders will be re-elected unchallenged.
Market report round-up
At John Swan’s sale at St Boswells yesterday 55 prime bullocks averaged 170.4p/kg (-3.7p on the week) and sold to 192p, whilst 58 heifers averaged 170.6p/kg (-1.7p on the week) and sold to 194p.
41 beef type OTM averaged 110p/kg and sold to 166p.
1759 prime lambs averaged 196.9p/kg (+24.1p on the week) and sold to £98 and 217.5p/kg.
704 ewes averaged £68.14 (+£6.90 on the week and sold to £122.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article