What are you doing for Love Lamb Week? Work together to ensure campaign success, says NSA

6th August 2021

As the UK sheep sector prepares to celebrate another Love Lamb Week at the beginning of September, the National Sheep Association (NSA) is urging farmers to encourage their local community to get involved in promotional activities for the annual campaign.
 
Now in its seventh year, Love Lamb Week, running from 1st to 7th September, encourages the domestic consumption of UK lamb at its peak season of availability. The campaign is facilitated by UK levy boards with support from NSA and others. It has previously caught the attention of high profile celebrity chefs as well as mainstream media sharing the story of a delicious, nutritious product that is produced in a sustainable manner by hard working farming communities in the UK.
 
But the success of campaigns such as Love Lamb Week can
be amplified further when farmers themselves get involved, meaning NSA is now encouraging the nation’s sheep farmers to increase their promotional activity during the week and encourage their local communities to do so also.
 
NSA Communications Officer Katie James says: “As plans are secured for what is expected to be another positive week of the Love lamb campaign, NSA would like to see local farming communities working together to encourage the consumption of lamb.
 
“There are so many excellent resources being produced by our UK levy boards to support this, now is a great time for farmers to reach out to independent retailers, farm shops, butchers, restaurants and pubs to discuss how they can work together to share the key messages of the campaign encouraging consumption of a delicious and nutritious meat that is produced sustainably using environmentally friendly farming methods. If each farmer can ask their local establishment, ‘What are you doing for Love Lamb Week this year?’ the reach of the campaign could be grown even further.”
 
Toolkits to support promotional activity are available from all UK levy boards and NSA is suggesting farmers make their local retailers and restaurateurs aware of the availability of these to help them with ideas on how they can get involved and promote the campaign.
 
The planned promotions of the UK levy boards were shared at an NSA Breakfast Club webinar this week, creating a positive start to the build up of Love Lamb activity. Mrs James continues: “The NSA Breakfast Club is a monthly fixture that covers a wide range of topics. NSA was pleased to be joined for the August session by AHDB Beef & Lamb, Quality Meat Scotland, Livestock and Meat Commission of Northern Ireland and Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales sharing their campaigns for Love Lamb Week and into autumn 2021 also. Sheep farmers joining the webinar were encouraged that the levy boards are working to reach far and wide and encourage more consumers to add, and importantly, to keep adding delicious lamb to their shopping baskets. We can all play a role in amplifying that message but making sure everyone knows when Love Lamb Week is and that they can do to take part.”
 
The NSA webinar is available to view again at www.nationalsheep.org.uk/webinars. More information on Love Lamb Week is available at www.nationalsheep.org.uk/lovelamb, where links to the four UK levy boards and their promotional kits for Love Lamb Week 2021 can also be found.