THE Scottish Government has announced that it has extended the Beef Efficiency Scheme (BES) administrative deadline for existing BES customers to submit their calving data on the ScotEID website from Friday July 15 to Sunday July 31.
The objective of the 5-year BES is to assist in the development of beef herds in Scotland to become more efficient.
The information required by farmers to ensure their application is accurate includes calf ID, date of birth, sex, and both the dam and sire ID, as well as information on calving ease, size of calf, calf vigour, creep feeding (if applicable) and calf mortality (if applicable). Applicants also have to supply information about the dam (mother of the calf) such as docility and culling/death reasons of the dam (if applicable).
According to NFU Scotland there are a small number of applicants who have had problems with the system, and it has fed this back to Scottish Government. This has included some who were previously unable to record calving data for all calves born from January 1 to June 12016, due to issues with holding numbers. ScotEID has confirmed this has now been resolved.
The Scottish Government is advising BES customers unable to input the required data by the extended deadline that they can either - have their contract varied to start in 2017, which will move their first BES payment from 2017 to 2018, or have their BES contract withdrawn.
Market round-up
C&D Auction Marts Ltd sold 3050 prime lambs in Longtown on Thursday to a top of £111 per head and 233p per kg to average 194p (-17p on the week).
The firm also had 3524 cast sheep forward when heavy ewes sold to £163 for a Texel and averaged £80.27 (+£4.91), while light ewes peaked at £77 for Lleyns and levelled at £46.61 (+31p). Rams sold to £168 for a Texel and averaged £89.55.
Messrs Craig Wilson Ltd sold 63 store heifers at Ayr on Thursday to a top of £1195 per head and 232.4p per kg to average £820.79 and 205.5p (-5p on the fortnight), while 122 store, beef-bred bullocks peaked at £1310 and 256.1p to level at £878.19 and 210.5p (-8.1p).
Twenty-four store, B&W bullocks sold to £780 and 147.1p to average £540 and 138.4p (-6.3p).
The firm went on to sell 57 store heifers in Newton Stewart yesterday to a top of £1050 and 231p to average £796.53 and 201.7p (-7.7p on the month), while 68 store, beef-bred bullocks peaked at £1120 and 258.8p to level at £863.21 and 216.1p (-4.3p). Twenty-five store, B&W bullocks averaged £691.41 and 151.8p (+1.6p).
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