Meeting of the Parliament 11 December 2024
This SSI will unfairly disadvantage small herd farmers and crofters, especially those who are farming on islands and poorer land. It imposes a calving interval conditionality of 410 days on support from the suckler beef support scheme. Under the new policy, a calf must either be the first offspring of a cow or be born no later than 410 days since its mother gave birth the last time. That interval will decrease over time.
The Scottish Crofting Federation told us that many crofters cannot control that interval. It quotes one of its island members who, only recently, had organised to take delivery of a bull under the Scottish Government scheme on 15 August. Due to weather conditions, delivery was delayed to 4 September. Ferries can be cancelled and there are restrictions on the weather conditions when animals can travel, for welfare reasons. Ferry cancellations also need to be rebooked. A crofter has no control over that. In that case, the crofter was already 21 days behind schedule to receive the bull, and because of that it could be up to 50 days before all their cows were pregnant. A delay of that kind can also have a knock-on impact on other small herds that may be waiting to lease the same bull. It seems wrong that delays in the Scottish Government providing a lease bull could cost a small farmer or crofter dearly.