Issue 41 farmingscotland.com July 2007

Page 1


MacPherson

farmingscotland

is written, edited and designed in the Scottish Highlands. This publication reports industry wide over the whole of Scotland and N of England and is distributed free for farmers and crofters to abattoirs, livestock markets, farm supplies and SERD offices from the Borders to the Butt of Lewis, from Stranraer to the Shetland Isles and Clitheroe to Cumbria.

EDITOR: Eilidh MacPherson Shepherd’s Cottage Eynort, Carbost, Isle of Skye

Tel: 01478 640331 Mobile: 07879018552 editor@farmingscotland.com www.farmingscotland.com

PUBLISHER - Eilidh MacPherson

Cover - Wiseman Wellies at RHS

Text and photography by Eilidh MacPherson unless otherwise stated

Page 4/5 - Finlay McIntyre

Page 6 - RABDF

Page 8/9 - Davidsons Animal Feeds

Page 12 - Charolais Sheep Society

Page 17 - Limousin Society

Page 30/31 - bottom page C MacGregor

Page 31 - top - Fintry Drama

farmingscotland

Trainee Auctioneer at Forfar Mart – Finlay McIntyre – who initially said he would like to write for farmingscotland.com magazine when he was a student has compiled his first article. He interviewed one of his cohorts from SAC days – dairy farmer Kenny Groat – and made an excellent job (see p6/7). We’ll be hearing from Finlay on a regular basis.

Davidsons Animal Feeds organizes study tours for its employees on an annual basis. These tours give a great opportunity to everyone who is involved in different parts of the business to exchange experiences with other professionals.

In the last few years the company has visited feed mills and farms in Ireland, England, France and Sweden gaining much experience and new ideas that could be built into the production system, quality products and sales methods. This year they travelled to Hungary and have kindly reported on their interesting trip for farmingscotland.com magazine on pages 10 and 11.

As it is now a few weeks since the Highland Show, I’ve compiled a picture gallery rather than bore everyone with a re-run of results. This year I’ve gone for ‘what else happens at the Highland’ rather than the livestock approach.

The Charolais Sheep Society is celebrating 30 years in the UK and is hosting a Sustainable Sheep Day at Glenrinnes near Dufftown. With forty trade stands, speakers and

plenty of Blackface and Charolais sheep and Shorthorn Cattle to look at it has the makings of a great day out.

Skye is one of the latest places to benefit form the Monitor Farm project. A couple of weeks ago over 30 crofters, farmers and industry representatives, from Skye and North Uist, gathered at Borve and Annishadder Township for the first meeting – read all about it on p14-15.

Hugh Stringleman reports on traceability and EID electronic identification on a world basis and UKEIDA and Richard Webber of Shearwell have their say on the UK position. UKEIDA have pointed out that a couple of Hugh’s technicalities are inaccurate: ‘The Australian national livestock identification scheme...... greater than full-duplex.’

The latest generation of transceivers can read both technologies with equal efficiency, if anything; the use of DSP can bring FDX devices ahead of HDX. The efficiency of read range is critically dependant on the transceivers compliance with the ISO 11785 standard.

“However extended reader range quickly turns from a positive into a negative when animals are crowded together.”

This is true of both technologies when anti collision techniques are not used. For anti collision to work both the transceiver and transponders need to be compatible, however this is not part of the current relevant international standard. For any more information call UKEIDA.

4 5 Dairy Groat Cheese

8

9 Dairy Davidsons in Hungary

10

11 Royal Highland Highlights 2007

14

15 Monitor Farm Isle of Skye

UKEIDA

Groat Cheese

It is no secret that the prices for liquid milk have been in the doldrums these past few years. All aspects of Scottish agriculture have had their hardships to face, but the dairy sector has suffered perhaps more than most – although some sheep and beef farmers may argue only marginally.

So this was the impetus for the Groat family of Bishopston to start thinking about the way in which they intended to take their business forward.

The family arrived at the farm in the early 1950’s, after Sinclair Groat and his wife Greta, settled there from Copensay in Orkney. Their son Richard and his wife Nicola, who may be familiar to some through their many years of showing pedigree Blonde D’aquitaine cattle, now run the farm. Their two sons, Kenny and Ian now take part in many of the management decisions, although Sinclair and Greta are never far away when there is work to be done.

The Farm is in none of the available RSS schemes, or involved in any LMC’s, as Kenny and his family believe that their time is better suited to make their farming enterprise more profitable without the restrictions that such schemes can incur.

Kenny, the youngest of the family has always been an enterprising type of fellow – always trying to turn a shilling into a pound! Money has been saved on the farm Saving by building their own poly tunnels, silage carts and a wide variety of agricultural equipment – more recently cheese presses, which will soon be put to

work in the family’s new enterprise –cheese and yoghurt making. Kenny and his brother Ian have been experimenting with the idea of cheese making for some years – anyone who went to college with them can testify that even in the early days they had a knack for making a good cheddar cheese. With a product list of hard, soft and cottage cheeses, yoghurts, yoghurt drinks and cream, what was a little fun has now turned into major diversification for the farm, employing one full time family member for product production.

Ian and Kenny both spent time at SAC Craibstone, gaining an HND and a BSC in Agriculture respectively. Kenny described his time at college as a “fantastic, great experience”, that made him think out of the box in terms of diversifying. He cites visits to such as Dean Andersons Enterprises, near Elgin as very useful in terms of where he wanted his future to lead.

In diversifying, Kenny feels that the family really have a chance to gain a better price for some of the milk used in the production of the cheese and yoghurt products, whilst getting a subtle break from the harsh realities of farming. At the same time, giving the family a chance to achieve

something worthwhile.

The Groats are achieving a quality product with Kenny highlighting the unique selling point for their products as “local, fresh and NATURAL”. Absolutely no artificial additives or preservatives are used in any of their products, which they believe enhances the taste. They have certainly received good feed back from the food fairs and shows they have attended this year. Opinion at Bishopston is that when it comes to dairy products the supermarkets push cheap and lower quality products on the market, moving away from the traditional relationship between farmer and consumer. Kenny has discovered that consumers are willing to support high quality, local produce sold with a friendly attitude.

This project has really taken off, with the family supplying The Store at Foveran and Edinburgh and various other high quality outlets in the Aberdeen area. Richard admits that while the future for the dairy sector was bleak, things are now starting to look up. There are promising possibilities; the Tesco seasonal product scheme is a step in the right direction towards getting the dairy industry on its feet again.

As always, Kenny is not one to

shirk a challenge and he does not rule out trying new ideas at Bishopston. For example, marketing his lamb through similar outlets is a distinct possibility. More radical than that, though is the possibility of marketing Jersey beef.

There are other strings to the Groats’ bow however, as they run a commercial flock of Beltex, Texel and Cross sheep. The flock currently lambs 170% and the family are delighted with this year’s crop of lambs. The sheep flock is heavily reliant on grass throughout the year as the farm operates an extensive grazing system. The grass receives regular covering with slurry and a treatment of Nitrogen in the spring. Lambs receive no creep feeding with most going just over the road to McIntosh Donald at Portlethan achieving a U4L average. Traits which are looked out for at Bishopston are sheep with a deep, long body, good frame, a correct neck line and hybrid vigour bringing out a really good gigot.

This year’s consignment of 50 or so Beltex and Texel cross shearlings are destined for Kelso, due to be sold by auctioneers Lawrie and Symington. Tups are fed through the worst of the winter and are given a small ration from July onwards to bring them into sale condition, although Kenny is quick to mention that the sheep are by no means pushed! The feedback received from purchasers of the tups in previous years has indicated that the sheep go on and grow – these sheep don’t melt when you get them home. The main aim on the farm is to produce good, commercial, genuine sheep.

So there you go folk, whether you are looking to appease your taste buds or to find a good sheep to put milk on your ewes and leave good lambs, look to the Groats of Bishopton. Watch this space, these artisan cheese and yoghurt makers are only just getting started!

FARM DETAILS

Farmers: The Groat Family

Farming: Bishopton, 380 acres

Location: Banchory, Devenick, Aberdeenshire

Stock : 150 sheep - 50 tups 190 dairy cattle, milking 150 - supplying Wiseman Dairies 1 West Highland Terrier called Isla Straw wrapped and treated www.devenickdairy.co.uk

Crops: 30 acres of Spring Barley, crimped for dairy cattle, under sown with stubble neeps.

Other income: Cheese and youghurt making

Baroness Byford bags RABDF

Newly elected president of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers is Lady Hazel Byford, shadow spokesman for food, farming and rural affairs in the House of Lords.

She brings a comprehensive wealth of knowledge and experience to the organisation having studied agriculture prior to managing a poultry enterprise producing parent stock. She now has interests in her family’s Suffolk based farming business. Lady Byford holds a number of positions within the sector; she is president of the FACE strategy group, LEAF and Concordia, and an honorary associate member of the British Veterinary Association and of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. She is also a patron of several rural organisations including the Rural Stress Network, the Village Retail Services Association, and the Institute of Agricultural Secretaries and Administrators.

“I am delighted to be elected

president of RABDF, and during my term of office I will be focused on helping to raise public awareness of the difficulties faced by dairy farmers as a direct result of low farm gate milk prices, and keeping those issues to the fore,” she says. “Similarly, I plan to help promote British food and its source of origin through the forthcoming Year of Farming and Food initiative designed to enable each school child to visit a farm and get a better understanding of the sector.”

“We are looking forward to Lady Byford’s input,” says RABDF chief executive, Nick Everington. “Her keen interest in the dairy sector combined with her enthusiastic support for our continuing campaign for a fair milk price will help drive forward the organisation strategically and benefit all producers. Farmers will have the opportunity to meet and talk with her at the forthcoming Dairy Event on 19 & 20 September.”

Dairying in Hungary

Last year Davidsons Animal Feeds expanded their professional team with a Hungarian nutritionist. This year some of the staff toured Hungary on thier annual sojurn, investigated the agriculture and sampled the culture of a country, which was previously part of the Eastern-European block.

Due to its natural conditions and historical traditions the agriculture and food industries have always played a definitive role in the economy of Hungary. The cultivated agricultural land area is 63 percent of the total land area, while 6 percent of the active earners are employed in agriculture. The share of agriculture in the GDP is about 3 percent, and that of the food industry is more than 4 percent. According to the Farm Structure Survey 7600 agricultural enterprises and more than 750 000 households were engaged in some kind of agricultural activity.

In recent years fundamental changes have taken place in regard to the ownership and the structure of agriculture. Formerly a relatively small number of large-scale agricultural and food processing enterprises existed. In the years of transition a large number of small and medium size farms were established, some were only intended as supplementary income for families, and usually the sum available is so small that is not enough to improve the living standard of the families.

In contrast are those competitive farms, which comprise the majority of agricultural production in the country. These were state owned enterprises, with large numbers of animals and large volumes of cultivated lands, which still represent the very well developed Hungarian agriculture.

State ownership is a thing of the

past, all these large farms are in private hands nowadays. In most cases either management or outside investors had the opportunity to buy shares during privatisation.

We visited 'smaller' 400-450 cow dairy and beef herds and 'bigger' herds with 800-1500 dairy cows during our three day trip. We have chosen two farms to introduce the different farming systems used in Hungary.

We started our first day in the South-Eastern part of Hungary, on The Great Plain, where you can travel hundred of miles without seeing any hills or mountains. Our first dairy farm was in the small village of Deszk, near Szeged, with its 600 Holstein Friesian cows and 900 hectares land, owned by Agronomia Ltd and run by 18 employees.

There was a major investment by the Austrian owner two years ago; they put up a new cubicle shed, designed by German architects, which holds all the lactating cows of the herd.

The cows are kept in six smaller groups within the shed, three of which are fed to produce 45 litres, with top yielding cows producing 6070 litres. Heifers spend the first 30 days in straw yard before they enter the cubicle system. All cows above 30 litres are milked three times a day through a 12/24 herringbone parlour, all the rest are milked twice.

Forage is different from what we see in Scotland: maize and Lucerne silage are the basis of the diet. It is not common to use grass silage for dairy cows at all. Because of the long, warmsummer, they are able to take off 5 cuts from the Lucerne fields. Wet pressed sugar beet pulp is also fed to provide a high level of digestible fibre to maintain good butterfat levels.

The farm uses home grown cereals

(maize and wheat) to mix with minerals, rumen buffers and calcium based protected fat in their small feed mill. They also add cottonseed through of their diet feeder, as well as Soya and rape pellets.

Cows are on TMR, their highest yielding groups are set up to a relatively low crude protein level of 16.5%, with a 24kg of DMI containing 11.5kg concentrates and 12.5kg of forage, which provides a very healthy diet. Water needs to be added to the TMR mix because of the hot weather conditions. All cows are fed for a 10% rejection, which is scraped out daily and fed to young stock.

This farm was very impressive, particularly its production level: with cows averaging nearly 37 litre/day, putting the herd within the top ten dairy herds in the country.

Our next stop was at HodMezogazda Plc in Hodmezovasarhely. This company was one of the biggest state owned agricultural companies in the past, currently owned by three individuals since 2004. The size and number of branches the company deals with tend to be increasing instead of decreasing after the ownership change.

The activities of the company cover a large area of the agriculture sector. It owns 7500 hectares land, from which 6200 hectares provide all the forage and cereals for their own livestock production. They run a successful hybrid seed plant; they also have their own feed mill, with a 20 000 tonne capacity/year, which currently produces 4000 tonnes compound and 6000 tonnes of mineral and vitamin premixes. Own branded compounds and premixes for all class of livestock are sold in the area through their retail stores and

representatives.

The company runs a 1700 sow pedigree pig unit, has 2300 cattle on three farms, and also operates a nucleus farm of Furioso-North Star horses unique to the country. We had the opportunity to visit the largest cattle farm of the company with its 1500 cows Holstein Frisian herd in the village of Vajhat.

The herd had the first 100 tonne milk producing cow in Hungary in the late 1990's, which has been followed by nearly 20 others since then. Herd average lactation yield is 10800 litres at the moment. This farm is home to very intensive embryo transfer work. The Hungarian top ten sire list (which also includes all the US, Canadian, European bulls) currently has 2 bulls of Vajhat origin.

In 2004 they built a new De-Laval Blue Diamond 32/64 rapid exit parlour, which is operated 24 hours a day by two people. 2000 litres of milk go through the parlour each hour. They milk three times a day; milk is picked up three times a day; milk production varies from 3600042000 litres per day due to seasonal changes.

The company is member of a milk cooperative, which owns an ex-Parmalat processing plant in the country, has 162 members and produces 400 million litres milk yearly. This unit produces 13-14 million litres milk per year, from which 70% goes to Romania.

The company gets paid on butterfat and protein, milk price is around 15 pence per litre. The total feed cost is 8.3p/l, cost of forage is 3.3p/l and cost of concentrate 5p/l. The margin was zero last year, which has improved to 2p/l since January's price increase.

Cows are kept in seven cubicle

Davidson

sheds all year around, of which each holds 204 cows, in two groups in each shed. All groups are on TMR, of 130 tonnes of feed mixed daily through the tub mixer.

The typical ration for newly calved cows, which is fed for 120 days, includes 22kg maize silage, 6kg Lucerne silage, 2kg Lucerne hay, 6kg

pressed sugar beet pulp, 1kg dry beet pulp, 1kg grass hay, 0.5kg molasses and 10kg concentrate. The concentrate includes ground maize and wheat, full fat Soya, protected Soya and prairie meal.

The importance of dry cow feeding to give a good start for their animals at the beginning of lactation is emphatically stipulated. They feed their dry cows twice a day with TMR, which includes maize silage and grass hay, using high levels of 1250IU Vitamin E, 7500mg Niacin and high levels of -carotene, as well. The close up cows are fed maize and Lucerne silages along with adlib grass hay, and also get 3,5kg concentrate, which containsprotected Soya, prairie meal, glycerine, yeast and Niacin.

A fifty member staff runs this huge dairy operation and the excellent results are due to their dedicated work both from general worker and management sites.

We also visited the ostrich, goat and dairy unit of the Research Farm of the Agriculture Collage of Hodmezovasarhely, dairy and Charolais beef farms, the feed mill of Agriculture PLC of Szerencs and Hodmix Feed Mill. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of our host farmers in Hungary for their hospitality and comprehensive introduction to their businesses.

I hope we have managed to highlight some differences between Scottish and Hungarian farming and agriculture. Farm sizes and the number of animals on farm are much greater in Hungary, which makes it possible to run a more concentrated business and to reduce general cost of production, but also may create more problems, for example, limited availability of land for forage and cereal production; the likelihood of having general health problems because of the larger herd sizes. Cost of labour is much lower in Hungary (a general farm worker gets paid only 500Euros/month), which is a big 'cost saver' for farm owners. Climate conditions are also differ from ours: during our visit the temperature was 33 Celsius in the shade, high yielding

cows were losing 5litres of milk per day. Different forages and cereals are grown which determine the composition of the diet and the work of the nutritionist, but basically the main target everywhere is satisfying the needs of our cows and showing the right road to farmers to achieve higher margins through better nutrition and management.

Highlights

Charolais Sheep Celebrate 30th

How to make Highland prime lamb production profitable and sustainable will be the focus of major sheep event to be held at Aultbeg Farm, Glenrinnes Farms Ltd, Dufftown, Aberdeen on Thurs 19th July. It is a problem facing most sheep farmers and in particular hill farms on how to keep their enterprise going.

A wide variety of talks, displays and demonstrations will give pointers to producers on ways and ideas to improve their bottom line. It is hoped that Mr Richard Lochhead, the new Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment will open the event.

The event will be held on the 6,000 acre unit at Glenrinnes, which is managed by Mr Richard Smith.

The unit runs 1,600 Scottish Blackface ewes and 200 suckler cows. Ewes are mated to Blackface, Texel and Charollais rams. Visitors will be able to view the sheep flock and also the prize winning pedigree Glenrinnes Beef Shorthorn herd.

The land is 100% organic, registered with SOPA – the Scottish Organic Producers Association – and runs from 800' to the highest point in the region, the 2,700 Ben Rinnes summit.

All the lamb fromGlenrinnes goes to McIntosh Donald, who are exclu-

sive suppliers of organic Scotch beef and lamb to Tesco.

QMS will mount two workshops at the event; one looking at the use of EBV (estimated breeding values) for selection of breeding stock and also a lamb grading display. Charollais rams from the performance recorded Logie Durno flock of William and Carole Ingram from Pitcaple will be used to demonstrate terminal sire selection.

The day will open at 1.00 p.m. and close at 7.00 p.m. giving busy farmers the flexibility to visit the event to suit their workload. Visitors will be able to take part in the varied presentations which will be repeated during the afternoon/early evening.

Sheep and Wellies

Speakers on feeding strategies, the economics of sustainability, easier care systems and tagging and identification will inform and stimulate debate. A wide range of over 40 trade stands will give visitors plenty more to see.

The event is being organised by the Charollais Sheep Society as part of their 30th Anniversary programme. The use of Charollais rams on hill ewes has been a revelation to many farmers over the past few years. This cross produces a remarkable lamb; they lamb easily and grow to give a carcass weight that enhances profitability in hill situations. A breed that many considered unsuitable for this job, is rapidly proving critics wrong.

83654

Stockists of a wide range of Hoggs of Fife and Dickies Work and Leisure Wear, Work boots, Waterproofs. Coveralls etc. Muddy Puddles and Kidorable Childrens Waterproofs, Wellies, Umbrellas and much more.

Lamb and Calf Colostrum, Lambing and Calving and Agricultural Sundries. All at very competitive prices. Mail Order available.

Also ATV Lambing Trailers made to your own requirements.

Should you wish any further details don't hesitate to contact either Sandy or Madeleine by phone or e.mail or visit our stand at the “Sustainable Sheep Farming Event”

DCH FARM SALES

BEEF FEEDS FOR ALL SYSTEMS

• High energy nuts, rolls & blends

• Protein concentrates for balancing home grown cereals

• Creep feeds for suckled calves

• FULL RANGE OF STRAIGHTS & MINERALS; soya, distillers dark grains, molassed beet pulp, maize gluten, etc.

• Full technical backup

Monitor Township

The Township of Borve and Annishadder, on Skye, has been selected as the tenth Monitor Farm in Scotland, but is unique in the fact that it is the first and only Crofting Township in the country to be monitored.

Andy McGowan from Quality Meat Scotland told the 30 farmers, crofters and industry representatives, from throughout Skye and North Uist, who attended the inaugural Monitor meeting, “Farmers from the North East of Scotland depend on quality stock from the North West and we are here to see that the supply continues and livestock production remains financially viable.”

The project, which is funded by Quality Meat Scotland and SEERAD and facilitated by SAC, will run over a three-year period.

Borve and Annishadder Township is divided into 36 crofts, which average 6 to 7ha in size, on the in bye land, while the common grazings cover some 1430.21ha.

Hill grazings in Highland crofting areas tend to be managed in two distinct ways: either the flock is run as one and the shareholders receive a dividend at the end of each year or each crofter liberates his own sheep on the hill.

The crofters at Borve, like many others on the Island, operate the latter system, with individual ear notches and red, blue or green buist marks for ease of identification. They

A Monitor Farm programme on the Isle of Skye will hopefully be the flagship for crofting communities throughout the Highlands.

take their own sheep onto the crofts at tupping and lambing, but they work together to gather, shear and dip and for pre-sale preparation.

This system enables the crofters to improve their stock as they see fit, using whatever sires they wish, but also ensures all hill stock are on a level playing field when it comes to animal health.

Communal, modern sheep, handling facilities were erected in the ‘70’s and more recently substantial cattle yards have been built. Although the township has the facilities and licence to dip and dispose, they prefer to call in Neil Montgomery and his mobile shower for speed and convenience.

Township clerk, Alaistar Nicolson, who runs crofts 3, 4 & 5, with 25 Cheviot and cross ewes, 2 Highland cows in bye and 105 Blackfaces on the hill, explained that the crofters from the community set up Borve and Annishadder Township Ltd in 1993 to take ownership of the land.

They now tenant their crofts from the company.

Alastair, like the seven other active crofters participating in the scheme, has a full time job off the croft. He is an IT Consultant, contracting mainly for Local Enterprise Companies, working from Achultibuie to Glen Coe.

The crofters have taken advantage of subsidised schemes over the past few years and are now reaping the benefits from planting 211.61ha of forestry on the hill ground. “The plantations have helped make the hill boundaries stock proof, which saves time when gathering and has contributed to the township income,” explained Alastair.

Hill sheep numbers have been reduced in the past three years from 1200 down to 800 as part of the Rural Stewardship Scheme.

Alastair’s brother Calum Nicolson, whohas neighbouring crofts 1 & 2, also runs 130 sheep and 2 Highlanders. He earns his living from fish farming.

NFU Secretary for Strathaven, Cameron MacFadyen, is another

crofter involved in the Monitor Township. His crofts, numbers 17 and 18 carry 25 sheep and two Highlanders and are looked after in his absence.

Joiners and builders Angus and Donnie MacDonald run 60 and 55 hill ewes respectively with the latter owning a couple of Aberdeen Angus cows.

Young cattle rancher, John Archie MacInnes boasts a herd of 16 Highland and Galloway cattle and a white Shorthorn bull on croft number 22. He intends to use his bull to breed roan and Blue Grey replacements and then use a terminal sire over them.

John Archie, who has a young family of three, runs 170 ewes at Borve. He holds a bus licence but is driving a lorry, hauling aggregates, for a local haulage company at the moment.

At the other end of the township retired (from the Council) crofter, John Angus MacKenzie, (pictured above) now has plenty time on his hands to tend to his 100 Blackface hillewes, 49 Cheviots and 2 Highlanders on crofts numbers 24 and 25. He hopes to: “cut feed costs, increase profit, improve grassland, investigate worm resistance and look into niche marketing,” with the help of the community group and local agribusiness representatives during the Monitor Township programme.

His son, Kenneth MacKenzie, runs a gardening and lawn mowing business alongside his crofting interests at No.26 Borve. Kenneth has specialised in breeding North Country Cheviot rams from his 40 strong flock and is selling

them at Dingwall and Portree this year. The afternoon session back at Aros Heritage Centre outside Portree, saw various ideas put forward for future meetings of the Monitor Farm. Coming from an Island it was no surprise that cutting feed costs was top priority. Grassland management, marketing, EID and worming trials and potential diversification were all discussed.

SAC Agricultural Consultant, Colin MacPhail, who manages the SAC in Balivanich, Benbecula is facilitating the Skye Monitior Township. Colin is well qualified for the position, coming from a successful farming background on the Isle of Mull, running Blackface ewes and a renowned fold of Highlanders.

Colin, who previously worked as a livestock buyer for MacIntosh Donald, is running a beef and lamb-marketing demo at the next meeting, on Wednesday August 15th at 3pm, prior to the main lamb and calf sales. As all the crofters at Borve have full time positions elsewhere, meetings have to be scheduled for weekends or evenings. Local lass, Janette Sutherland, who recently joined the Portree SAC office, after graduating in Ecology, is also working on the project.

For further information call or e-mail Colin MacPhail on 01870 602336 or colin.macphail@sac.co.uk or Janette on 01478 612993. Anyone interested is welcome to attend the next meeting.

World Markets

Two years of consultation have yet to result in a workable individual animal identification scheme for cattle and deer in NZ.

The practicalities of introducing electronic ID (EID) are still being wrangled over, but time grows short for export meat market compliance.

One big meat exporter has said that a major UK retailer believes New Zealand has only got another 12 months before its lamb products must have birth-to-plate traceability.

Retailers are already flexing their considerable muscles over country of origin, food miles and carbon footprints, egged on by UK producers. But UK farmers are not themselves convinced that EID is required, although the EU appears determined to introduce it.

With the furthest to travel and the cleanest, greenest reputation to uphold, New Zealand cannot afford to drag its hooves over traceability, which is essentially a food safety issue.

The National Animal Identification and Traceability (NAIT) group of farmers' representatives, meat companies and technology providers published a discussion document in July 2005. Despite being short on specifics, NAIT predicted that a scheme for voluntary animal ID would begin in October 2006 followed by mandatory tagging in October 2007. Neither of those deadlines will be met and the NAIT chairman, King Country hill farmer Ian Corney, now talks vaguely about a national scheme to kick off in 2008 or 2009.

Beef cattle and deer farmers who attended the recent National Agricultural Fieldays were shown an impressive array of EID equipment,

programmes, wireless technology and derived farm management benefits.

They will need to be convinced of the benefits, such as automated drafting and single sire mating recording, to feel good about shelling out big bucks for radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and readers, plus all the follow-up computer gear.

NAIT has run up against several complicated matters in its quest to design the lowest-cost, maximally effective national ID programme.

The fundamental technical issue is the choice of RFID technology, namely half-duplex or full-duplex or both. Half-duplex is one-way transmission of electronic information at a time, whereas full-duplex is two-way simultaneously. This issue has a big bearing on the complexity and cost of RFID tags and readers.

Electronics giant Texas Instruments dominates worldwide sales of half-duplex and therefore its products are dearer, according to local electronics manufacturer Bill Gallagher. Each ear tag has to have a transponder, which carries programmable number information, which makes that animal unique. That number can then be electronically linked into databases of breeding information, animal health treatments, stock sales and movements, slaughtering and eventual meat products and by-products.

how the animal was raised.

The Australian national livestock identification scheme, one of the most advanced in the world, uses half-duplex technology because it was ubiquitous and reliable, and the reader range is greater than full-duplex. It is now considered to be something of a costly dead-end.

International company Allflex, the market leader in RFID tags, has a long history in half-duplex and has done well from sales in Australia. However extended reader range quickly turns from a positive into a negative when animals are crowded together. For that reason Allflex also offers fullduplex sheep tags, which are being bought in NZ by early-adopters like Merino group breeding schemes.

Gallagher Group has readers which handle both tag types, but Mr Gallagher believes the more competitive full duplex technology will be cheaper for farmers.

A second big issue for NAIT is the capture and reporting of animal movements. Some providers like LIC, which already operates the national dairy cattle Minda database, are urging NAIT to “fix both ends” of an animal's life, on farm and at the meat works, and worry about intervening movements later on.

suspected animals and their cohorts, such as during the Waiheke Island foot-and-mouth disease hoax. In a real disease outbreak, “missing” animals become more important than located ones.

A third issue is the requirements on farmers, agents, truck drivers and meat workers to record all IDs of livestock, which pass through their hands.

Tens of thousands of readers and computers are going to be needed, because a national scheme is only as strong as its weakest link. There will be national databases, approved providers and legislation governing compliance. NAIT expects the costs to fall where the benefits lie, across farmers, meat companies and the government, which has a national biosecurity interest in the scheme.

NAIT's job is to design a protocol for a seamless use of such information, from farm through transport operator, to meat plant, separation into cuts, export and retail display.

In theory, an EID scheme should allow the UK shopper to know which NZ farm the meat came from, and

Mr Corney is determined to have “95%” of the complete system worked out before pressing the button. He thinks livestock agents and transport operators are pivotal, and will have to gear up to carry wireless readers to capture the EIDs of all cattle and deer carried.

Whole-of-life records for animals will be required for trace-back of

Australian farmers were heavily subsidised into their national scheme, which was a way of the Federal government dealing with the States. US authorities are now bogged in that area, without agreement between States and producer bodies, and many people unconvinced that a country, which consumes almost all of its own meat needs a Rolls Royce traceability scheme.

NZ has no option and cannot afford to dither much longer. “One morning we will wake up to find a UK supermarket has made traceability compulsory for all its meat suppliers,” a technology provider said.

Farmers are surrounded by all this gee-whizz technology which promises to make their lives easier, but NAIT cannot get an agreement on the design of the national scheme.

Hugh Stringleman

C-DAX

The View from the United Kingdom Electronic Identification Association (UKEIDA).

In 2004, a dark and distant Regulation was published (21/2004) with very clear timelines and requirements in Europe on the subject of sheep identification on 1 Jan 2008.

The UK devolved Governments took the stance that we would be granted a never-ending derogation from the regulations and that doing nothing would be the solution. In June 2007 the ‘never-ending derogation’ from the dreaded double tagging ended! The wheels of regulation 21/2004 started to turn and will quickly gather pace in the near future.

For some time now UKEIDA has been trying to gain seats on the various devolved Governments steering groups to advise on how best to introduce EID. We have been refused attendance at any of these meetings because of our 'Vested Interest'. Yes, of course we have an interest in tagging as individual commercial companies, but as an organisation we rise above this and have a vast wealth of knowledge and expertise, which must be put to best use otherwise the industry, may pay dearly for its mistakes.

All of us have been involved in trials/projects and National schemes throughout the UK and the rest of the world. This expertise should not be ignored. We have seen devolved governments spend large amounts of money on 'consultants', most of whom have never been involved with operational use nor implementation of EID in any form whatsoever. Yet, these “would be” experts are advising on how EID should be adopted at a National level! No wonder there is

complete confusion as to what is best practice.

It is high time that our elected bodies and civil servants listened to our industry and stopped throwing away money running up blind alleys, because of poor advice from the wrong or expired experts.

There are around 4.5 million EID devices being used by farmers in the UK. These are being used to manage herds and flocks to capture data and make sound and accurate judgements on genetics, feed regimes, health plans and automated births, movements and deaths. Is it not better to try to look at how EID will benefit businesses, bearing in mind that will be mandated in due course, rather than do nothing? Not all farmers will require readers, there will be different tiers of expertise and requirements and as EID becomes more widespread its usage will become easier and benefits will become more apparent.

Australia, Quebec, Western Canada and Uruguay have all adopted EID as National ID schemes. The sad part of this is that the Agriculture decision makers of all 4 of these countries came to the UK to see how EID worked and were convinced that it did work and implemented it in their own countries. We are 10 years on, still dithering.

There is only one International Standard for EID in livestock - ISO 11784/117845 - and if the UK considers anything other than this we will isolate ourselves from the rest of the world and could lose our export market when EID is mandated.

Let us work together to extract the best benefits to all from EID.

Livestock farmer and tag manufacturer, Richard Webber of Shearwell, puts across his views on Electronic Identification

Much has been written about Electronic Identification (EID) and many 'experts' have commented and reported on trials and the use of the technology

In this article I will try to give my honest opinion of how I see things (as both a tag manufacturer and LFA sheep and beef farmer) and how we should go about making the most of a regulation that other member states are implementing as we speak (Spain, Holland, Greece, Italy, Cyprus....).

In 1990 the EU offered each Member State the opportunity to take part in the IDEA Trials (Identification Electronique des animaux). The UK, (the largest livestock producing member state) was coming up to an election at that time. Along with others, I tried hard to persuade MAFF to take part, but it proved to be an impossible task. So the trials went in the EU without the UK. The trials established that EID was a workable solution for individual animal identification.

A group of livestock farmers on Exmoor decided to mirrror the IDEA trials to give us some form of knowledge to pass on to those that represent the UK in the EU and to be informed on the technology when

debating the issues. What we found in our trial was that the software used was of equal importance to the EID as was Electronic Data Transfer (EDT). Without good software and a database it is clear EID cannot work.

Unfortunately our concerns with how EID should be implemented have not been listened to, which has resulted in a system proposed to print the visual number on the microchip, which in my calculations will needlessly cost the sheep industry £18million per annum.

We have spent 17 years researching, developing and trialling EID, working towards proving the technology for the day when the Regulation will be forced upon us. It is unfortunate that even having formed UKEIDA (United Kingdom Electronic Identification Association) our devolved organisations STILL will not allow the expertise from this huge knowledge base from our organisation to provide guidance and advice to their various steering groups and meetings. The basic models and templates for trials are fundamaental in providing the foundation to any trial success yet, repeatedly, devolved governments continue to set up trials without consulting our organisation.

“Farmingscotland.com magazine is an extremely interesting read and I find the articles from New Zealand fascinating.”

Little wonder that people find it hard to understand how best to go about introducing EID and more still how to use it to improve their businesses and find a way to replace the reduction in Single Farm Payments.

I am also astounded to find that after this length of time people are still trying to cloud the issue of EID with mid and high frequency technologies. The ISO Standard (11784/11785) is set for the use of LOW FREQUENCY and this is what we and other member states and the ISO committees have been striving to perfect for the last 17 years.

What benefits have we found in our flock? We know the performance value of each individual animal. We know which rams to breed from: out of 17 texel rams there were three outstanding rams and some that should never be used for finished lamb production. Within 3 years we reduced the difference in returns between our top and bottom financially producing rams by £7 per lamb. An increase in income of £5000. We have identified pasture that does not put the weight on, so putting the plough in is now more regular than before. When comparing my three crop ewes financial performance

my top ewe produced £253 more than the bottom one! Perhaps the most sobering figure; I could go on but I think you get the picture.

So what about the upland extensive producer? Well I guess he relies on the lowland buyer to come back every year for his replacement ewes. In my case when I bought North of England Mules from a dealer they came from 5 different holdings and two of those holdings I would have gone back and paid £3 per head more for. The others perhaps should have gone for slaughter.

What I am trying to say is that where there is a will there is a way and in my opinion we can either react to the regulation negatively or positively. Being positive with the pressures of legislation and low prices I know is hard but what is the alternative? Turn our back on world trade and expect people to buy our product because they feel sorry for us or compete and be efficient? Being in charge of our destiny and information has to be our only route forward. So please recognise and listen to those who have worked tirelessly and invested in trying to help make advantage for livestock producers from this technology.

Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.