British Heritage Sheep Update

3rd December 2020

Bob Kennard has shared this update from the British Heritage Sheep scheme:

Despite the current great uncertainty surrounding UK food and farming, we are pressing ahead with the British Heritage Sheep (BHS) scheme. 

Timing
There is currently one bright spot in the UK food sector, which is the surge in interest in buying meat 'with a story'. Whether this is through a farm shop, traditional butchers, or buying from a farmer online, sales have been surging since the spring for retailers who are able to trace food back to its source. So, if ever there was a time to launch BHS, it is surely now.

Not only is public opinion showing considerable interest in the principles of the BHS scheme, government policy and industry thinking is also moving in the same direction. As Phil Stocker, CEO of the NSA said recently "In previous years breed diversity has often been thought of as a problem, bringing inconsistency in an era when farming policy dictated increases in efficiency and homogenisation, in order to compete on a global commodity market. Product consistency, in line with meeting market specifications, is a positive thing, but now it has been accepted that our future is not based on producing commodities and competing on price, but on high standards, quality products, adding value, and premium markets."

Brecon Beacons
In South Wales the Brecon Beacons National Park (BBNP), in conjunction with the NSA, has been developing a scheme (known as ABC), very much along the lines of BHS, which will act as a pilot project for the scheme. The ABC project will link over 4 million annual visitors to the park with the main food produced in the park - sheep meat. As with BHS, the idea is to boost sales of native breed lamb, hogget and mutton by demonstrating the great diversity available through identifying the Age, Breed and Countryside where the animals were reared. With funding in place from the Welsh Government, work should start on this pilot project in the New Year and through it, useful lessons can be learned and applied to the main scheme as it starts to develop across Great Britain next year.

For some the BHS scheme cannot arrive quick enough. Worry figures were reported earlier this year about the numbers of the iconic Lake District Herdwick breed, which have been falling rapidly in recent years. This simply emphasises how important the BHS scheme is, and how urgent it is to get it doing its job of conserving all UK native breeds of sheep. 

Funding
We now have structures in place to develop the scheme, and so have started to look for suitable sources of funding for BHS. Whist we are living through extraordinary times in which money will be short, the BHS scheme has widespread support across industry, consumers and government. We are therefore confident that we will find the resources needed to launch the scheme over the next few months.

Collaboration
The scheme is built on the idea of the entire supply chain working together to deliver the goals of BHS. Whilst "events, dear boy, events" have caused a slower start than we envisaged, we will keep you informed of developments and hope you will be able to be part of this scheme in the near future.

Information
A video, the full feasibility report and a summary are available to download at www.nationalsheep.org.uk/heritagesheep. To contact BHS please email me at bobk@nationalsheep.org.uk.