NSA Breed Society Forum 2021
Date: 6th May 2021
Location: Online
After an enforced absence in 2020, this year’s NSA Breed Society Forum took place on 6th May – as in the past, still on the first Thursday in May. For the first time it was an online event in 2021, split into two sessions allowing attendees to join for the morning programme and/or the afternoon section. While attendance had been limited to two people per society in previous years, the online format allowed anyone linked to a breed society to attend.
Attendees from NSA affiliated breed societies were given updates on activities, membership and NSA Policy work, alongside an overview on the Premium Sheep and Goat Heath Scheme from Dr Alison Braddick and an update on export certification from Marcus Bates and Rob Grinnall
With the continuing restrictions resulting in the various regional events for 2021 being cancelled, Chris Adamson, NSA Activities and Campaigns Officer, was able to provide something to look forward to with diary dates, including NSA Sheep at Malvern on the 27th July 2022, and a number of regional events already planned in 2022 and some into 2023.
Commenting on membership, Chris said “Our membership figures have stayed pretty stable throughout the whole pandemic and when our physical activity has reduced we have been very active in other ways. Thanks needs to go all of the affiliated societies, other organisations and companies that all work today to ensure we have a strong and united sheep industry.”
NSA Operations Director, Joanne Briggs, detailed the British Heritage Sheep project - an initiative introducing the public to the fantastic flavours and sublime eating experiences of one of the UK’s iconic and priceless assets – its 60 native breeds of sheep. Offering consumers “New tastes from old traditions”, Jo commented, “British Heritage Sheep, is based the ABC of sheep meat, namely the Age and Breed of the sheep and the area of Countryside where it has been farmed, promoting the diversity, geographical spread & seasonality that makes up the wide range of tastes on offer.” More information can be found at: www.heritagesheep.org.uk
Jo went on to describe the ongoing NSA work to protect the diversity of the UK’s native sheep breeds by maintaining a viable Ovine Semen Archive. This was established in 2009 with the Rare Breed’s Survival trust, the breeds are being dealt with on a case-by-case basis with all 69 breeds due to have been reviewed by December 2021. Further information is available at www.nationalsheep.org.uk/nsa-and-osa.
The morning session was wrapped up with a summary from Sean Riches, NSA Policy & Technical Officer on some of the recent NSA Policy work, covering research, sheep worrying, consultations and rewilding.
Under the heading of research, attendees were given an overview of the RDPE funded Sheep Scab project, being managed by the NSA in South West England. The project will run over two years, offering participating farmers a unique combination of on-farm advice, best practice training and free blood testing using the sheep scab ELISA test developed by Moredun
This co-ordinated approach will be used to demonstrate the control of sheep scab in three focus areas of England where scab currently presents a significant problem. The outcomes from the three regional projects are intended to be used to guide the management of sheep scab across the UK in future years.
Sean went on to present a summary of the 2021 NSA Sheep worrying survey with more respondents completing the annual survey than ever before. An increase of 20% on the previous highest response (2014 joint survey with Farmers Guardian) was observed with an incredible increase of 460% on number of responses from the 2020 survey. Sean commented, “Farmers reported feeling of anxiety, anger, upset, stress and frustration as a result of sheep worrying by dogs attacks with more than half recognising this was adversely affecting their mental health.” A full report of the survey and of the Sheep Worrying Fortnight campaign, #LeadOn, is available on the NSA website.
The second half of 2020 and quarter one of 2021 saw NSA respond to a significant number of consultations launched by different sectors of government and associated agencies. A full list of the responses is available on the NSA Website. Sean gave a quick overview of some that have been completed to demonstrate the key areas of NSA policy and technical work raising the profile of the association and other organisational objectives. The number of consultations have reduced markedly in recent months, but are expected to pick up again following the various elections occurring early in May.
Before wrapping up the morning session, Sean gave a brief update on the continued work on behalf of NSA to address the current rewilding projects and proposals, namely Lynx, Wolves & White-tailed Eagles. There have been a number of calls to support the nation’s sheep farmers and protect vulnerable livestock. However the threats remain and will require continued pressure from organisations such as NSA to improve the involvement and engagement with the farming industry by those organisations and bodies pushing for the reintroduction of these apex predators.
The afternoon session was opened by NSA Chief Executive Phil Stocker, giving an update on trade, policies and the agriculture transition plan, all set to shape the future trading situation for the next era. He went on to describe, how, prior to Brexit happening on 24th December, there was much fear and talk of “No Deal” and that tariffs would be applied, which in turn led to a level of selling ahead. Phil carried on to describe how the knock-on effect had resulted less animals available in the early months of 2021, and that while trade is still going on and prices are favourable, those first weeks saw disruption due to many changes and the additional paperwork adding £1.8k-£4k per load of lamb, causing some smaller processors to be feeling the pinch.
Phil went on to detail, that as a result of Brexit, UK Government has ambitions to end live exports and early in 2021 consultations were launched and as a result we can expect legislation changes to happen this year. This will have no effect on breeding animals but Border Control Posts (BCPs) with live animal facilities are required at the place of entry to allow exports to start up again. Phil reported how Qualiva, a French company, hope to have a facility for breeding sheep near Calais, but further investment of €200k is sought, this will include some potential payback in terms of reduced gate fees, anyone with an interest to contact Phil directly.
Attendees were also informed on other outcomes as a result of Brexit, such as the Northern Ireland protocol, which has led to immediate problems for sheep movements, including the application of Scrapie requirements, residency requirements for NI stock returning to NI from GB and finally retagging with some concerns of an impact on traceability. Very little movement on any of these at the moment, however, as mentioned by Phil, there is much work ongoing in meeting with respective government departments and communicating with ministers. It is hoped that the recent signing of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TAC) will lead to a more positive mood between the UK & European Commission.
There is much current activity on domestic agricultural policy certainly in England and some on UK scale, Phil gave an overview of the common visions for the future across the devolved nations, which although working at different speeds have common objectives but with different timescales. Those objectives being to encourage agriculture to be more productive, more efficient and to be less reliant on financial support, at the same time still meeting the varied environmental objectives.
The UK government’s Agricultural Transition plan, to be completed by 2028, looks to deliver a renewed agricultural sector producing healthy food, that is sustainable and addresses climate change. Phil commented, that while the aspiration is good, the challenge will be achieving it, however there are frustrations remaining on exactly what the financial support will look like, but the plans do include a more welcome approach to dealing with compliance.
Phil continued with an update on the Environment Land Management Schemes (ELMS) and the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), commenting that more than 2400 Expressions of Interest had been received, which were now being sorted with the aim to invite approximately 1500 farmers to take part in a pilot scheme over a three-year period. Whilst the schemes will include some rewilding projects, afforestation etc that may be a challenge for some sheep farming enterprises, on the whole, it is seen as a positive in that SFI supports farming and includes both exit and new entrant schemes. In 2022 we will see the introduction of Pathway which is an Animal Heath and Welfare focused scheme in England, intended to find a connection with SFI, to help improve the health status of livestock. The expectation is for this to start with funded vet visit to capture performance metrics and data, then to develop a plan to focus on specific key health issues (where appropriate) such as lameness, anthelmintic resistance and antibiotic audits.
Phil wrapped up his session, with a vision of the what the future might look like “ … we can expect high standards, high quality products being produced, also quality in other outcomes such as the environmental footprint, carbon footprint and general protection of the planet that is financially appropriate. I believe we can maintain sheep numbers in the UK, and perhaps understand how to make the traditional stratified sheep production systems work to deliver future objectives.”
The session ended with a discussion on zootechnic regulations, society flockbook registrations and the export of breeding sheep & germinal material. This proved to be a more complex subject due to a number of permutations – for those looking for further guidance please go to Guide to zootechnical rules and standards - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Alison Braddock from SRUC Veterinary services, updated attendees on MV/CAE testing, that it was on track, plenty of testing ongoing and expected to be fully up to date shortly.
She also encouraged embryo recipients to be vigilant and ensure to check health status and that correct documentation is available, mentioning that as a resource the membership database on the website (www.psghs.co.uk) may be useful.
Alison informed that articles have been distributed on new PSGHS monitoring schemes for MV & Johne’s disease, aimed at large flocks, as an early warning to prevent disease spread and stressed that it is not a replacement for MV Accreditation.
On the Scrapie monitoring scheme, there has been a delay in updating rules, new rules wait for final approval, but essentially not much difference from before. A digital guide is available here https://sway.office.com/GLpoUY8fPhJZspna?ref=Link
Please also see the Member Resources section of www.sheepandgoathealth.co.uk for lots of advice sheets. Alison also requested more case studies and also would appreciate feedback on the new website
The afternoon session completed with Marcus Bates from Export Certificate Ltd & Rob Grinnall from UKTAG – two organisations that do two different jobs, working together to achieve UK’s ambitions to export & further involves 2 different government departments having to collaborate, which can difficult.
Rob updated on recent work including responding to the live animal export consultations, amends to Export Health Certificates, describing how much behind the scenes is ongoing to link government depts as well as countries outside UK. He detailed export successes in LATAM, which are proving to be huge markets for sheep, with significant numbers of sheep in individual flocks, looking to improve their stock all the time. Also in Australia & New Zealand that genetics were moving there & finally Taiwan where sheep & goat semen has been accepted. Current priorities continue to open further in LATAM (equal to c.£0.5m - £1.0m in value for individual markets) as well as Eastern Europe & India.
Scrapie is top of the list for consideration when looking at opening up other markets, so it important to continue monitoring and genotyping, as well as monitoring for infectious diseases.
Marcus spoke about the building of a web platform to allow companies to exhibit in the absence of face-to-face events, which will continue to be useful when trade shows restart. He also introduced a recently produced a capability document for UK livestock breeding & genetics, shortly to be digitised & available online. Also that money has been secured to produce videos – so will ask NSA, via Phil Stocker, what are the kep points that need to be portrayed. Mention was also made for the need of “after-care” in some export markets, where sheep keeping expertise may not be the same as in the UK, adding that sheep & genetics should be accompanied by a management package, including training & expertise (labour) where appropriate.
The meeting was closed with thanks to all speakers and attendees for their time and contributions to an informative day of knowledge sharing and an anticipation of what the Breed Society Forum 2022 might look like.
NSA welcomes your thoughts on the future of the forum and whether it should remain online (so people from anywhere in the UK can attend) or continue to be a face-to-face event that we move around the UK each year. To help with decisions and to gain some insights from the different breed societies a survey has been set up (https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/breedsocietyforum) with a closing date of Friday 28th May for completion, we will really value your opinions.
