Agribusiness News August 2023

Welcome to the August edition of Agribusiness News.  If you prefer to download this document click the download button.

N e w s  i n  b r i e f

Whether the weather…

With the new football season underway, the weather across Europe is very much a game of two halves with large bands of heavy rain hindering harvests across northern Europe in sharp contrast to the extreme temperatures and devastating fires in southern Europe.  Coupled with the cessation of the Black Sea grain initiative and the recent bombing of Ukrainian ports, grain traders are monitoring global harvest reports intensely, as they try to balance supply with demand.

In this edition of Agribusiness news, George Chalmers highlights that the pig sector is continuing to show signs of recovery.  Lesley Wylie reports that while beef deadweight prices have continued to fall throughout July; it is hoped that this is due partly to a reduction in demand linked to the start of the school holidays.  However, there is also downward pressure on retail prices linked to the strengthening of the pound, lower priced Irish beef imports and the value of heavy cattle hides dropping in recent weeks.

Following her study tour to Europe, Lorna Shaw discusses that having specially trained guard dogs for sheep flocks may help in deterring predators.  Saving ‘black loss’ lambs could help Scottish sheep farmers take advantage of the possible new markets highlighted in Kirsten Williams’ sheep article.

And, with around 50% of farm businesses having one or more diversification enterprises, Sascha Grierson looks at the importance of marketing and social media as a means of boosting both profile and product sales.

As Net Zero targets start to impact across the supply chains, Brady Stevens looks at the measures that the Whisky industry is looking at and how this might impact on arable farmers going forward. The planned research into high heat tolerance of crops could not be more timely given that globally July is expected to be the hottest on record,

Next month:

• Alternative Energy
• Buffalo Farming

This month’s editor: Christine Beaton