GROWING BARLEY for whisky is a mainstay of Scottish arable farming – but under lockdown, maltsters and distillers had to put the brakes on production, casting doubt on what harvest market will be waiting for the crops that many growers had just finished establishing. It costs a lot of time and money to completely shutdown and restart a distillery, so many of Scotland’s were still open with a skeleton staff to keep them ticking over, with some producing ethanol for hand sanitiser, but none were going ‘full bore’ at whisky production. Distillery bosses were understood to be keen to resume full production, but were awaiting an indication from the authorities that their business was sufficiently important to justify bringing a full staff back in.

Reports started emerging that organised criminals may have been devoting more attention to the countryside as their urban ‘revenue streams’ dried up under the lockdown. Police and insurers issued a warning to farmers, rural residents, and businesses to review their security after a spate of crimes in the countryside. NFU Mutual highlighted incidents of agricultural vehicle and machinery crime, including quad thefts in Aberdeenshire and the Lothians. Ingliston-based agent Scott Carruthers said: “While it is welcome news that overall the country has seen a reduction in crime, we are warning rural communities to ramp up security as organised criminal gangs turn their attention to an even more isolated countryside as their other revenue streams dry up. Smaller, more portable equipment appears to be topping the thieves’ wish list and we know from recent experience that quads have been targeted in the Lothians.”

A wildfire which had been raging through the Galloway Forest Park since Thursday, April 23, was finally brought under control. Thousands of acres of grassland near Mossdale had been burnt, reportedly killing local wildlife but luckily missing nearby grazing livestock. The fire, which is thought to have started close to the old railway near Loch Skerrow, ventured into Forestry Commission land and flames and smoke were seen from miles around the blaze. Local gamekeeper, Dru Ross, was one of the first at the scene: “On Thursday lunchtime, I noticed a batch of smoke coming off the hill and thought it had to belong to some of the forestry machines which were extracting wood, but when we got up to the hill it turned out to be a grass fire,” he told The SF. “Within hours it was a massive fire and soon became out of control – at its worst, the face of the fire was 4km wide. There were 10 to 12 fire engines and two helicopters in attendance at one point."

Fears were growing that ‘subsidised’ Irish and foreign meat was flooding into the UK because of the way the Republic of Ireland’s government was supporting its businesses. Dublin was paying a Covid-19 wage subsidy to staff continuing to work, with the nett effect that Eire could effectively dump beef onto the UK market cheaper. This had already seen a slump in UK farmgate prices as Irish and Polish product flooded the shelves at Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s. While the ROI’s ‘pay to work’ scheme started for lower paid employees on salaries of less than €24,400 (£21,500), that changed to include higher paid staff and the proportion of salary paid by government increased to 85%, giving Irish slaughterers and processors a significant advantage, by reducing their cost base. Industry insider, Jim Walker, told The SF that this ‘subsidised’ meat probably goes against EU competition rules and plays into the hands of retailers which are being subsidised by the UK government. “It’s totally immoral and borderline illegal that imported beef is being supported in this way, while the UK government is also handing back hundreds of millions in business rate relief to retailers who are doing pretty well out of this and having their best sustained sales period for years,” said the former NFUS president and past chairman of QMS.

SAC Consulting’s office in Kirkwall was celebrating 20 years of providing recordkeeping support and advice to farmers on the Orkney Islands. Orkney is a unique farming area with the highest density of beef cows in Europe; no less than 30,000 on 93,000 ha. It was SAC consultant, George Baikie, who first saw the need for a service to help with cattle records and claim forms and started that side of the business out of the college’s existing Orkney office in 2000, along with colleague, Nancy Fergus. Current area manager and senior consultant Susan Pirie have been there for 16 years and has a staff of five including herself in the office, which relocated to the mart at Kirkwall in 2003.

Imported food of a provenance far inferior to that offered by Scottish farmers would be allowed into the UK if the Agriculture Bill before the Westminster Parliament passed into law without major amendment, Scottish farmers’ leaders warned. Despite repeated calls from farmers representatives both north and south of the border – and verbal assurances from the numerous politicians who have passed in and out of DEFRA’s leadership in recent years – Westminster’s plans for agricultural legislation still did not explicitly rule out the future importation of agricultural products produced to lower standards of safety and animal welfare than the current shared UK/ EU standards. With Prime Minister Boris Johnson pursuing an Anglo-American trade deal as a political prize, there are genuine fears that the United States’ enthusiasm for genetically modified crops and growth hormone stimulated meat and milk would spill across the Atlantic unless firm legal barriers are maintained.

A scheme offering hardship payments to dairy farmers was dismissed as an ‘overcomplicated’ non-starter for Scotland. England’s dairy farmers would be eligible to access up to £10,000 in government support if they could prove a loss of over 25% income as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown. However, the details of the scheme were criticised for their complexity, with the Scottish Government and NFU Scotland’s milk committee meeting in private to debate whether such a scheme would be appropriate here. The SF had been told that, given the way the English scheme was determined, only a handful of Scottish producers would qualify for payment. If a similar scheme were to be rolled out in Scotland, a distinction would need to be clear that only those farmers directly impacted by Covid-19 could apply, ruling out those producers who have been struggling as result of falling milk prices over the past two months.

A new promotional body had been set up to bring together the marketing of all types of Mule sheep. The Mule Group aimed to promote the ‘adaptability, profitability and ideal mothering characteristics’ of females from each of the five main Mule societies – Scotch Mules, North of England Mules, Welsh Mules, Cheviot Mules and Highland Mules. While each society had always worked as an individual association and will continue to do so, there is now a commonality between them in that they all share the same sire in the Bluefaced Leicester – and the Bluefaced Leicester Association is supporting the new group to promote the overall message that Mules are the UK’s ‘Number One commercial breeding female’ and ensure marketing of the cross-breds reaches its full potential. It is estimated that 400,000 Mule females are sold annually, with enough breeders involved to give the Mule Group a combined membership of 3500.

To mark Mental Health Awareness Week, the Scottish Association of Young Farmers launched a new rural wellbeing hub as part of its on-going ‘Are Ewe Okay?’ campaign – alongside free mental health first aid training courses. Members were encouraged to check out the new hub ‘Are Ewe Aware?’ on the main SAYFC website for the latest information and advice about looking after your mental health and spotting warning signs in others. The hub would offer young farmers easy access to services and information, for a better understanding on the various types of support and guidance available across the rural sector.

With silage-making under way in Scotland, farmers were urged to keep this year’s grass season accident and injury free. Managing director of NFU Mutual Risk Management Services, Ian Jewitt, said: “This year’s silage-making is already presenting challenges to many farms – particularly smaller units which don’t normally need staff beyond their own family members and need to put in place procedures to enable social distancing to be maintained. “The coronavirus outbreak means that everyone is having to cope with different ways of working and that brings new stresses and anxieties to everyone involved in food production. It’s work that has to be done to ensure that farms have stored fodder to feed cattle through next winter – but it’s vital that safe working procedures are in place to protect farmers, their families, staff and contractors from coronavirus infection,” said Mr Jewitt.

British egg producers raised the alarm over the Conservative Government’s failure to impose tariffs against imports of eggs – fresh, liquid or powdered – from overseas production systems with lower hen welfare and environmental standards than those required by British law. The domestic egg industry welcomed repeated Government commitments to uphold production standards in this country after Brexit, but noted that it has avoided committing to actual measures to prevent cheap battery cage eggs reaching the UK market. British Free Range Egg Producers Association chief executive, Robert Gooch, said: “My members have led the world in pioneering high-welfare free range egg production for more than 30 years but face the very real threat of being undercut by a tidal wave of eggs from hens kept in conditions which are illegal in this country. We again call on the Government to reassure British free range egg producers that their livelihoods will be not be exported abroad during trade negotiations and ask for the current level of egg tariffs to remain post Brexit.” The British Egg Industry Council, in partnership with Compassion in World Farming and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, recently wrote to the Secretary of State at the Dept for International Trade, Liz Truss and at DEFRA, George Eustice seeking the inclusion of eggs and egg products in the UK Global Tariff Policy.

Landlords were urged to reduce farm rents to allow tenants to recover from Covid-19 disruption. With an economic recession looming – ‘the likes of which we haven’t seen’, according to UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak – the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association asked Scottish Land and Estates to encourage landlords to withdraw existing rent notices, consider rent reductions and call a moratorium on rent increases until some economic stability and certainty has returned to the sector. The association had already urged the Scottish Government to make progress with a new rent test, based on the productive capacity of the farm, which would allow rents to be adjusted in light of economic conditions. STFA claimed that a number of landlords appeared to be pursuing rent increases in spite of the current climate and highlighted reports of others serving notices to increase rents for next May, despite tenants having already had recent rent reviews

RSABI, the charity which supports people in Scottish agriculture, was awarded £50,000 from the NFU Mutual Charitable Trust. A survey of the rural insurers’ customers found that nearly three quarters of them were feeling ‘more isolated’ since the UK went into lockdown, while demand for RSABI’s telephone call out service has increased significantly during the crisis. Crucially, the crisis was also having an impact on the number of fundraising events that can be held. RSABI chief executive Nina Clancy said: “We’re extremely grateful for the very generous donation of £50,000 from the NFU Mutual Charitable Trust. It comes at a time when income is uncertain for RSABI and it will help us to continue our work and deal with the impact of Covid-19 on the agricultural community in Scotland."

Post-Brexit UK immigration legislation must recognise the ‘hugely important role’ that non-UK workers play in Scotland’s iconic food and farming sectors. This was the message, as the UK Government’s Immigration and Social Security Coordination Bill passed its first vote in the House of Commons, establishing the legal framework to end the free movement of people between the UK and EU, and allow the UK Government’s preferred Points Based System of immigration to come into force on January 1, 2021. NFU Scotland, which has in the past strongly voiced its opposition to that ending of free movement, accepted that Boris Johnson’s Government will not back down on the policy, and suggested that the focus now should be on making that Points System ‘fit for purpose’. The Bill’s framework was based on it being an entry system for individuals who earn above a minimum salary of £25,600 and who are considered to be ‘highly skilled’ – and conversely to end all routes to permanent residence in the UK for workers deemed to be of ‘lower skill’, coming into effect from January 1, 2021.