Farming
By Alec Ross
Following the recent publication of the 2022 report by key fertiliser suppliers, that demonstrated net profits increasing by 500% to £5.45 billion, representatives of NFU Scotland met with the Competitions and Marketing Authority (CMA) earlier this week.
Union chief Martin Kennedy said: “These eye-watering profits were secured at a time when farmers were facing unprecedented fertiliser prices, and we used the meeting to highlight the impact that these costs have had on food security, particularly when combined with surging feed, energy and labour bills.
"Affordable fertiliser remains a key component in Scotland’s ability to produce affordable food, and we welcome further investigation by the CMA in this area”.
Round-up
A mixed show of lambs, including some leaner types that proved hard to cash, averaged 240p/kg or £104/head at Newton Stewart yesterday.
Well-bred lambs still commanded a premium however, with heavy Texels from H&J McCulloch, Dunkeld, selling to £143/head and Beltexes from Mount Pleasant peaking at 279p/kg.
Cast sheep held their value on the week and sold to £155/head for Texel tups from Garrochtrie, with Texel cross ewes from East Barr reaching £129/head. Blackies sold to £76 for Barbae while Cheviots peaked at £84 for Barquhill.
The recent hot weather seemed to affect the prime lamb trade at Dumfries yesterday, with all classes easier on the week.
Light lambs averaged 246p/kg and sold to 288p/kg for Beltexes from Foregirth, with the heaviest lambs averaging 225p/kg and selling to 231p/kg for Suffolks from Netherhall. Cast sheep also eased in line with national trends, but still peaked at £224 for a Texel from Shieldhill and at £84 for Lleyns from Bennan.
An excellent show of 4,565 at the annual Blackie ewe lamb sale at Lanark yesterday resulted in an average of £102/head, an increase of £3 on the year, and a peak of £3,800 for a single from Auldhouseburn, followed by another from the same home sold for £2,200 to Messrs Lynn.
Store cattle prices at Carlisle yesterday peaked at £1,880 for Grange Grassing, while Simmental bullocks from Brisco Hall sold to £1,850 with Anguses from the same vendor topping the native bred section at £1,780.
Dairy bred types sold to £1,780 as part of a strong consignment from Ellerslea, while heifers sold to £1,600 for a strong Limousin from Claremont Properties.
Bullocks at Longtown on Tuesday sold to £1,505/head for a pen of impressive Limousins from High House, with heifers selling to £1,440/head for British Blues from Harwood on Teviot, who also sold heifers to an average of £1,346/head.
Home bred cattle sold to £1,296/head for Skiddaw View, while store bullocks and heifers averaged £1,228/head and £1,084/head respectively.
Finally, Monday in Portree saw a large consignment of lambs average £48/head and sell to £107 for Texel crosses from Kilmuir, while feeding sheep sold to £105 for Blackface gimmers from Brogaig.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel