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25 May 2021
Charles Bruce: ‘If beef prices keep sliding, the suckler herd could be destroyed'
As the days and weeks fly past, natives of the north east of Scotland are now wondering if we are to get a summer season at all.
We were lucky in spring when we got 10 days of settled weather to put crops in the ground in good order.
It has been really difficult to plan work around weather which can give all four seasons in one day.
Silage is the main winter feed in our area, as many farmers have given up trying to get a settled spell to make quality hay.
I was honoured to be asked to judge this year’s Highland cattle section at the Royal Highland Show. It was an excellent show of quality and quantity, which made the judging a very pleasurable experience with several quality animals at the top end of all the classes.
The Royal Highland again put on a magnificent show, with many things of interest to both the general public and farming visitors alike.
I am sure once everything is counted, there will have been record numbers through the gates.
In the wider industry, the time has now come for a fightback from the farming community against the peddlers of doom and the anti-meat lobby, who, for a small percentage of the population, get an amazingly large media coverage.
If you throw enough manure, some of it is bound to stick. That seems to be their mode of operation.
Depending on which set of statistics you believe, the cattle herd in the country is causing the end of the world through methane release from both ends.
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Or there is the counter claim, to which I subscribe, which is that suckler beef is carbon neutral as the grass grown to support the grazing of cattle and sheep traps the carbon in its root system through sequestration and is, therefore, a positive.
Repercussions
As deadweight prices are almost £1/kg less than 12 months ago, the ongoing slide must end soon or the repercussions will be the utter destruction of the suckler herd. Many producers simply cannot go into another winter paying £20-25/bale for straw or £35/bale for hay.
Suckler calf production on hill and upland units is a key first step in the production of quality meat to the consumer. Finishers would have no product to finish without them.
We are all in this fight together and to find solutions it is time for a change of focus.
Brexit, it seems, has been the sole focus of politicians and others charged with the efficient running of our country, yet they have failed everyone, not because they have not delivered Brexit, but because they have totally lost focus on everything else which is happening.
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