Agribusiness News November 2023

Welcome to the November 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

Scottish decline in livestock numbers

While farmers across Scotland have been tackling extreme weather and a challenging end to the year’s harvest, June Agricultural Census data has been processed and 2023 headlines released. Most notably, there has been a 3% reduction in cattle numbers and 2% reduction in sheep numbers in Scotland from 2023. For cattle, this reflects a longstanding trend in herd contraction, as well as a greater reduction this year due to high cull numbers driven by strong prices. However, increased herd efficiencies would normally expect to buffer a herd reduction to some extent, suggesting the national herd may be contracting more significantly than before. For sheep, concerns about reductions may be eased with persisting strong prices and indications of an increase in lamb consumption particularly in export markets (see Sheep article, pg. 5). For further detail on June Agricultural Census results see: https://www.gov.scot/publications/results-scottish-agricultural-census-june-2023/

In policy news, Scottish Government have two open consultations closing on the 24^th November, which we would encourage all rural stakeholders to participate in, where relevant:

• The Rural Affairs and Islands Committee has launched its consultation on the Agricultural and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill;
• And, the Finance and Public Administration Committee has launched its Call for Views on the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill Financial Memorandum.

Lastly, the Rural Affairs Secretary has announced that envelopes for Tier 1 and Tier 2 direct payments will be released at the NFUS AGM in February 2024.

Next month:

• Financial roundup
• Global trends update

This month’s editor: Anna Sellars