Farming
By Alec Ross
Following Cabinet Secretary Mairi Gougeon’s evidence session on the Scottish Budget last week, NFU Scotland President Martin Kennedy has asked for “absolute clarity” on funding ahead of the union’s AGM on the 9th of February.
Mr Kennedy believes that the evidence session has delivered as much confusion as clarity, however.
“We are none the wiser as to when all of the £61 million of deferred funding will be returned to the farming budget, as promised”, he said.
“Although we have heard details of how £15 million of deferred funding will come back through capital schemes, the draft budget states that these schemes will be cut – hence the confusion. And if deferred monies are to be returned through this method then they must be simple and accessible.
“The next few weeks provides an opportunity for the Scottish Government to put this right, and that is what we will be pressing for”.
Round-up
Bullocks at St Boswells yesterday averaged 299p/kg and sold to 328p/kg, while heifers averaged 303p/kg and sold to 334p/kg. Cast cows averaged 196p/kg and sold to 249p/kg or a top price of £2111, while hoggs rose by 34p on the week to an average of 310p/kg and sold to £193/head for Texels or to 359p/kg for Beltexes. And cast sheep averaged £89/head and sold to £169/head for Suffolks.
Cast beef cows at Dumfries yesterday averaged 180p/kg and sold to 280p/kg or £1932/head for Hartbush, while dairy cows averaged 150p/kg and sold to 188p/kg or £1702/head for Slacks. Prime cattle peaked at 330p/kg for a Limousin cross heifer from Yett, while stores sold to £1,700 for Limousin cross heifers from Cormaddie and to £1590 for Angus bullocks from Tregallon.
Rough weather meant a shortage of buyer requirements at Ayr yesterday, and a mixed offering met good demand and achieved an average of 302p/kg and a peak of 357p/kg for Beltexes from Muir. Trade in cast sheep maintained last week’s rates and peaked at £208 for a pure Texel from Fernwell, while tups sold to £140 for a Bluefaced Leicester from Craig.
Prime heifers at Carlisle yesterday rose 13p on the week to average 279p/kg and sold to 324p/kg, while beef bred bullocks rose by 10p to average 272p/kg and sold to 311p/kg. Young bulls rose by the same level to average 262p/kg, while cast beef and dairy cows averaged 186p/kg and 154p/kg respectively, a healthy increase on the week. And hoggs met huge demand, averaging 322p/kg (28p up on the week) and sold to £188.
Finally, prime dairy bullocks at Lanark yesterday rose slightly on the week to average 265p/kg and sold to 290p/kg for a Limousin, and there was also a slight increase in cast beef and dairy cows as they averaged 175p/kg and 143p/kg respectively. And in line with market trends, prime hoggets rose by 25p on the week to an average of 295p/kg and sold to £177/head, while cast ewes rose by 26p to average £87/head.
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