Farmers with beef cows are reminded that applications to the Scottish Suckler Beef Scheme (SSBSS), which provides £40 million to support the production of beef calves, will close later this month (December 31).
National Farmer’s Union (NFU) Scotland believes that the value of the SSBSS cannot be underestimated, as it ensures producers around the country are encouraged to keep producing beef calves and maintain the high-standard of beef.
After successful lobbying by NFU Scotland, the Scottish government has confirmed that the scheme will be a feature of future support arrangements in Scotland, and that new conditions will be introduced on eligibility from 2025 for the 2026 scheme.
The current scheme offers any farmer producing beef calves the opportunity to claim for any calf born between January 1, 2023 – December 2, 2023, provided the calves are at least 75% beef genetics, and have been kept on the holding of birth for at least 30 days.
NFU Scotland president, Martin Kennedy, said: “This scheme continues to be a vital element of support to maintain the beef suckler herd in Scotland. The iconic Scotch Beef brand continues to be the cornerstone of our red meat sector, and contributes 24% to the total Scottish agricultural output.
“We welcome the Scottish government’s commitment to this vital scheme beyond 2025, and we will look to ensure any new conditionality measures for eligibility are proportional and pragmatic.
“We know that one conditionality measure in the future will be around calving interval, a recommendation from the Suckler Beef Farmer-led Group’s report from several years ago.
“We have also been engaging with the policy reform stakeholder group emphasising a number of key points about the scheme.
“Firstly, we believe the scheme must retain a minimum £40 million budget – it must retain the island uplift and be delivered in the same cyclical fashion,” the NFU president said.
“We are also strongly in favour of a split payment to ensure there is a just transition to the new scheme rules in 2025. We would support eligible claims having a ‘base’ element for meeting existing eligibility criteria and a top up if the beef calf’s dam meets the new calving interval criteria,” he added.
Members are encouraged to take a look online at their MyHerdStats data available, via the ScotMoves website to look at their current calving interval statistics and ensure that they are registering all calves as soon as possible.
