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From The Wellies - May 06

ONE OF the latest Springs for a number of years has made life difficult on farms during lambing, calving and spring planting.  Snow in late March and cold winds throughout most of April have kept soil temperatures very low, which has slowed down grass growth.  This has affected farmers all over Scotland with traditional ‘early’ areas like Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway reporting late turnout of cattle and sheep and extra feeding having to be bought in. 

Planting of spring sown cereal crops was held up during March due to wet fields.  This has had a knock-on effect all year by reducing the available growing season for crops and pushing the harvest into late September, early October.  A later harvest means shorter harvesting days and increasing grain drying costs.

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RISING FUEL prices are continuing increase costs for any business relying on road haulage.  Crops and livestock movement, feed and inputs moving on to the farm, all travel by truck.  The £1/litre figure seems to be the magic number which causes people to complain.  Convert this to old money and it becomes £5/gallon.  Articulated trucks will do anywhere between 5-8 miles/gallon depending on whether or not it is stop/start work or a long run.  High fuel prices add costs onto any additional feed which has to be bought in until spring grass makes an appearance. 

There can be feed available in one part of the country but higher haulage costs can make it too costly to move.  A few years ago, malting barley was trading at £120/tonne with haulage costs averaging £3/tonne.  Barley now trades at £70/80/tonne with the haulage costs being around £10/tonne.

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AFTER a ten year ban on exports, British beef is now back on the menu in many European countries.  Scottish beef was at the top end of the export trade and was worth approximately £130 million to Scotland before the ban.  It will be interesting to see how this trade develops and the hope is that prices will rise now that farmers have some real alternatives to selling to supermarket buyers who use cheap imports as a way of keeping prices down. 

Quality Meat Scotland has maintained many of the links with top European restaurants who were using Scottish beef prior to the ban.  Other countries have stepped in to fill the demand, so it’s going to take a lot of hard work to win back market share.

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