Happy New Year and hopefully 2024 will be a prosperous year for Scotland’s farmers.

The weather on New Year’s Day was sunny and calm but January 2, brought another day of gales and heavy rain, hopefully, we will see less extreme weather in the coming year than in 2023.

On a positive note, the current values of all classes of cattle are above last year's values. The hope would be that prices can be maintained or increase in the year ahead and costs will be contained, to allow good margins to all producers.  

The SBA continues to be concerned about the continuing reduction of the national beef breeding herd, which has negative outcomes for rural economies, particularly in remote and fragile areas. It also goes beyond the farm gate to supply businesses, markets, and processors.

Over the last few months, the SBA has been part of the Stakeholders group around the proposed calving index conditionality to be met for the SSBSS, and it will be interesting to see what is announced in early 2024.

The hope is that they will listen to the industry and that the meetings have not just been a talking shop.  Most stakeholders including the SBA requested a fair transition by having a base payment for all calves plus a top up for those achieving the set calving index.

Whilst the efficiency of herds might improve there will undoubtedly be unintended consequences and a reduction of flexibility around management decisions of herds, in order to get most calves eligible for payment.

If the Government sets the calving index too low, some producers may choose to disperse cows rather than have ineligible calves. With such unrest around the world, particularly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and now the threat to shipping in the Red Sea, the necessity for food security is greater than it has been for many years.

This along with the fact that Scotland in particular has an excellent climate for beef production and can boast a lower carbon footprint than many other countries, should ring bells with our Governments to do what’s in their power to reverse the decline in cow numbers.

It is necessary that the details of policy changes for 2026 are released soon to allow farmers knowledge to plan for the future. The requirement is to have measures, particularly in tier 2 that can keep support going to farmers that allow for efficient production. We cannot have more raids on the agricultural budget than we have had for the last two years.

The Government should have realised there was underspend and endeavoured to spend it on agriculture. Although the £61m that was removed has been promised to be returned, the time frame is at best vague with no indication of how these returned finances may be utilised.

Returning to more positive points, the health benefits of eating red meat have recently been publicised better and the hope would be some of the damage done by the media’s biased reporting that beef is bad for both the individual’s health and the environment, will be reduced.

It is encouraging that numerous plant-based food suppliers are either scaling back production or have entered administration, proving the demand for meat products is not dropping like the vegans tried to tell us.

Another hope for 2024 is that the environmental benefits of rearing beef cattle will be appreciated more widely and more accurate carbon calculations will come to the fore, demonstrating that cattle are part of the net zero goal.

Looking forward beyond 2024 and for Scotland to keep its place in producing quality beef, changes will have to be made. A subject that has been raised many times is around a change to carcase grading.

More research needs to be done on this and a system implemented that reflects the eating quality of the meat. Without a better system of grading, we risk being overtaken as a quality product in the world market.