There is a lot to do politically on the crofting front and time is running away with us
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From the Croft by Russell Smith
I hope you voted earlier this month. We can disagree on what is best for Scotland, but it is important to register our preferences whenever there are elections.
The Scottish Crofting Federation’s (SCF) hustings showed strong support for crofting from across all parties. SCF will reconvene the Scottish Parliament’s Cross Party Group on Crofting. This group involves MSPs from all parties who meet with crofters and others six times a year to discuss relevant issues.
The group can’t take action itself, but recommendations to ministers are listened to and change often follows. There is attendance from Labour, SNP, Conservative and Lib Dem members and (on line) up to 30 crofters and agency representatives.
The last meeting discussed the future of agricultural support, public access to croft land, access to crofts for young people and the work of the Crofting Commission.
As I write, the cabinet secretary and ministerial posts haven’t been filled so I may be in time to make a plea to the First Minister.
We need a minister dedicated to planning for and implementing the new support systems for agriculture, post-Brexit and post-CAP. There is a lot to do and time is running away with us. Industry-led groups reported in March but a lot of that work was rushed to get an interim report out before the election and work was left unfinished.
The Hill, Upland and Crofting Group is most relevant to us and included a review of LFASS in its brief. The report is available online. We need to see some concrete proposals coming out of government and modelling of the effects of any proposed changes.
We know climate change will figure large in the proposals but details are needed. Crofting raises good quality livestock in an environmentally friendly manner, producing food on ground that cannot be used for growing crops whilst maintaining rural communities. Lots of boxes ticked!
Where would the North Coast 500 be without crofters to maintain the landscape and provide facilities and labour for businesses along the route?
Lambing for us is now over and I can now get everything sterilised and packed away till next year. The heavy snow broke off tree branches on the croft and along the roadsides but the dump of snow was after most of our lambs were born so we had no direct losses.
However, it was a surprise after a run of good springs and the grass is well back on the last few years, necessitating the purchase of extra feed. Now we have to keep them alive to the sales.
It is not yet clear whether the new Brexit regulations will permanently affect exports – no tariffs but lots of regulatory hurdles to get over. At the moment, QMS are stating that compared to the same week last year, lambs are 38 per cent dearer and hoggs 37 per cent.
For prime cattle at Scottish abattoirs “the year-on-year increase reached 26.7 per cent, while the rise above the five-year average approached 21 per cent”.
The weekly QMS Industry email is a good read and I recommend you get on the mailing list. And I would be grateful if anyone can explain how we seem to consistently get more ewe lambs than wethers – last year the split was 56/44 per cent and this year seems similar.
Russell Smith is a Bonar Bridge crofter and director of the Scottish Crofting Federation.
