The Scottish Government needs to ensure payment rates for climate action are high enough, or farmers will turn away from any schemes, according to former QMS chief economist, Stuart Ashworth.

Speaking at a Speyside SAC sheep open day, he addressed a packed shed of farmers at Ballindalloch Home Farm, where he fired a warning shot at policy makers by explaining that if a falling rural budget was combined with an increasing amount of cross compliance requirements, then few farmers would buy into the schemes.

Mr Ashworth said: “Farmers need to recognise that they own and manage resources that can supply more than just sheepmeat. They then to need to step back from the objective of the government policy and simply consider if the offer is something their business can supply in a profitable way.

"To apply for support becomes a business decision can I deliver ‘the good’ to the specification required for the price the government offers. It will depend on the cost incurred in material bought and production lost to meet the specification of ‘the good’ which the government is after.

“For government, the challenge is equally complex in that they have to set both the market price and the product specification at a price that is attractive to the farmer. If it isn’t then farmers will not respond, the objective will not be met and the money not used," he argued.

"Set the price too low and they will create an oversupply and run out of money. However, government has an additional challenge in finding the balance between different public goods they wish to buy and the unintended consequences that may arise from an over emphasis on a single issue of the day. They could deliver on environmental objectives, but not a rural community cohesion or a food security.”

Another hot topic at the panel session came from Tomintoul farmer, Jim Simmons, who asked the panel if the sheep sector needed to get away from breeding for ‘cosmetics, like heads and horns and produce a more uniform product’?

Black Isle farmer and panellist, Rod McKenzie, pointed out that when he was chair of NSA there were 48 breeds of sheep and now there were 90, which rises to around 110 if popular cross breeds are included. The North Country Cheviot breeder admitted that this made it hard to get consistency, but stressed that hill breeds, such as Blackfaces, Shetlands and his own Cheviots, were well suited to producing on the specific ground they were bred for.

SRUC lecturer, Andrew Ward Smith – originally from New Zealand – told attendees that one of the key reasons UK retailers bought significant volumes of imported Kiwi lamb was because they were buying a uniform product. He said NZ farmers used very few breeds and most of them were bred to be like a Romney, before pointing out that the country also has a varied climate and geography across the islands.

The former Two Sisters employee added: “When retailers open up a pallet of New Zealand lamb, it is so consistent, it looks like peas in a pod.”

However, fellow panellist and SRUC advisor, Kirsten Williams, said the range of breeds could also be a positive. She said: “We have a massive opportunity to cater for all markets with our range of lambs being produced. There are marketing opportunities to utilise all our breeds and types.”

When the panel was asked if there was a biodiversity crisis on upland sheep farms, SRUC ecologist, Professor Davy McCracken, was in little doubt saying there is ‘shed loads of data’ to back up the claim. He cited Scottish Government’s biodiversity strategy which stated there has been a 24% decline in the average abundance of 352 terrestrial and freshwater species since 1994.

The strategy, he pointed out, recommended a reduction in ‘monoculture grouse moors’ as well as a cut to sheep and deer numbers, whilst planting more trees and restoring peatland. However, the academic stressed that it did not need to be a binary choice and that many upland and hill sheep farms were already delivering 'biodiversity' and that sensitive integration of trees and eco-schemes could enhance the environment whilst maintaining production.

Mr McKenzie was in little doubt as to the culprits causing biodiversity decline, when he took aim at the sharp rise in protected predators such as buzzards, foxes and badgers. He blamed the apex predators for bird and hedgehog numbers plummeting. “Biodiversity is not being helped by ill-informed vote-chasing politicians,” he added.