KELLY FINLAY
CONTINUED industry lobbying for the administration of the Beef Efficiency Scheme to be made more workable ¬- and less frustrating - has paid off, with newly announced changes to the distribution of the scheme’s tissue tags for calves born in 2017.
The scheme requires participating farmers to collect tissue samples from a proportion of their calves born every year, as well as the bulls that sired them, to allow genetic information to be used to estimate the merit of animals for further breeding.
The National Farmers Union Scotland had informed Scottish Government of the problems being experienced by farmers when multiple batches of tags arrived at different times of the year for different animals that were in the same batch of calves by birth. Concerns were raised as this disjointed distribution of the compulsory tags meant that some farmers were unable to tissue sample the required animals as normal management schedules meant they had already been sold on.
To simplify matters, Scottish Government has now agreed to only require one selection of animals for tissue sampling per business per year.
This latest development will allow applicants who believe they will be selling spring-born calves at autumn sales to enter their calving data on the BES database early, by June 9, 2017, if they need their tissue tags delivered between late July and September 1.
Commenting on the change, NFUS livestock committee chairman Charlie Adam said: “Tags arriving at different times of the year for calves which were all born during the same period of time has frustrated our members. Scottish Government has listened and for calves born from 2017 onwards this should not be a problem again.
“New flexibility that will allow farmers to get tissue tags sooner is welcome and should make it now workable for more farmers to tissue sample their 2017 spring-born calves. It is hoped that the same flexibility will be given later in the year for the autumn-born crop of calves,” added Mr Adam.
“It’s important that farmers remember that while they may choose to upload their data early in order to receive their tissue tags in early July, the existing deadline for entering calving data for spring-born calves has not changed, and it is necessary for this data to be entered by July 15 at the latest,” he clarified.
NFU Scotland has also requested that the Scottish Government improve its communication with scheme applicants going forward, and continues to seek out improvements to the delivery of the scheme to make it more applicable to the routines of day-to-day farming. This change to tag distribution was, said the union, an example of the positive change which could be achieved when government took industry concerns on-board.
For in-depth news and views on Scottish agriculture, see this Friday’s issue of The Scottish Farmer or visit www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk
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