More Scottish livestock pricing data is to be published on Quality Meat Scotland’s website market page following the Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers in Scotland’s extended relationship with ScotEID and the levy board.

The move follows changes in the reporting and publishing of auction market livestock prices across Great Britain. From the start of 2024, a change in contractual arrangements in England and Wales meant that AHDB is no longer publishing live weight mart data from around GB on its website.

Neil Wilson, executive director of IAAS, said: “We are aware of how important the latest price information is to business-making decisions on livestock farms and have been in discussions on how we, as an industry, can continue to provide access to useful and independent market data.

“As a first step, IAAS is working with QMS and ScotEID to enhance what QMS currently publishes and some of that information is now available. We will continue to look at different options for making more comprehensive data available depending on what livestock farmers feel they need for their businesses, and we would like producers to feedback to us on this.”

QMS currently publishes auction market data for finished/prime and cull stock sold at Scottish auction markets. The updated arrangement will include information from the Border marts as well as store stock data.

Sarah Millar, QMS chief executive added: “We are pleased to be working with IAAS and ScotEID on making this information available. This data is also integral alongside and in the context of other data from across the industry for our market intelligence team to provide analysis and insights to support on-farm decision making.”

ScotEID independently processes and verifies Scottish mart information before it is publicly published and has been working with IAAS to provide this for QMS and others. This independent oversight ensures that the integrity and credibility of the information is of the highest quality.

“To put the power of the data into context, the livestock pricing from Scottish marts represents more than 20% of all GB cattle and sheep sales, therefore providing a very reliable indicator and driver of GB trade,” explains Scott McDowell at ScotEID.

Whilst this information remains a free resource in Scotland, there is a significant cost involved in processing the data. IAAS is keen to hear feedback from producers on how this data could be presented more effectively or offer more insight to aid on-farm decision making.