NFU Scotland has seized an opportunity to press home its position that Scotland’s farm funding shortfall of almost £190 million must be addressed in the current Review of Intra-UK Allocation of Domestic Farm Funding, being led by Lord Bew.
The original decision on the distribution of additional EU farm funding was taken by the UK Government in 2013 and, since then, NFU Scotland has repeatedly called for the decision to be subject to review. Now the process is finally under way the Union has responded to Lord Bew’s Independent Review.
The long-standing view of NFU Scotland is that it was exclusively as a result of Scotland’s low payment rate per hectare that the UK was awarded the convergence uplift in 2013.
However, the UK Government chose to share this dividend across the whole of the UK based on historic allocations, a decision NFUS believes was fundamentally flawed.
Market round-up.
Messrs Craig Wilson Ltd sold 14 prime heifers at Ayr on Tuesday to a top of £1440 and 240p to average £1243.65 or 227p, while 3 prime bullocks peaked at £1452 and 240p to level at £1433.25 or 235p.
In the rough ring 34 beef cows sold to £1320 and 159p to average 131p, while 47 dairy cows peaked at £1200 and 144p to level at 110p. Five bulls sold to £1500 and 148p to average 128p, while 7 clean, OTM cattle peaked at £1140 and 198p to level at 152p.
The 5 dairy cattle forward sold to £1750 for a Holstein Friesian heifer.
C&D Auction Marts Ltd sold 501 store hoggs and cast ewes at Longtown on Tuesday. Top prices for hoggs on the day were £87 for Suffolks and Texels. Feeding ewes sold to £80 for Texels.
A much larger show of 1,046 ewes and lambs were forward and bid to a top price of £84 a life for hoggs with singles.
The firm also had a small show of store cattle forward which sold to a top of £920 for a Limousin heifer.
Messrs Craig Wilson Ltd had a mixed show of 768 prime hoggs forward at their weekly sale in Newton Stewart yesterday with best types meeting the dearest trade this season.
Top prices on the day were £102.50 and 229p/kg for Texels with the overall average levelling at 195p (+9p on the week). The sale included 612 (79%) Blackface hoggs which sold to £94 and 213.9p/kg to average 200p. Five prime lambs sold to £105 or 223.4p/kg for Dorset lambs.
Cast sheep were a poorer selection this week but easy to cash with 21 heavy ewes selling to £135 for Texel crosses and averaging £80.14, while 109 light/export-type ewes peaked at £67 for Blackfaces and levelled at £55.82.
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 here