Reprieve for many Scottish bull calves

Published on Friday 29 August 2008 20:23

TENS of thousands of black-and-white Holstein bull calves are being shot on farms shortly after birth by farmers because they are virtually worthless.

Earlier this year these calves were valued at up to 60 per head for export to the Netherlands where they were raised for veal. However, that trade ground to a halt when bovine tuberculosis was discovered in one consignment of calves from the south-west of England.

But the National Beef Association reckons that there could be a worthwhile margin to be made by rearing these calves in the UK, either for bull beef or rose veal. The reasoning of the NBA lies in the fact that, with feeding barley considerably cheaper – possibly 115 per tonne delivered – and every indication that the ex-farm price of prime cattle will rise still further, there is a potential to make profit from these calves.

In addition, with the cost of dairy replacement heifers running at record levels, the insemination of cows using dairy semen is running at around 80 per cent. This has resulted in a shortage of beef cross calves from the dairy herd, but black-and-white bull calves are plentiful. On top of the scarcity of heifers, TB is seeing almost 1,000 dairy cows culled each week.

Beef from Holstein bulls will never be top quality, but it can have a place in the manufacturing sector, especially with imports from Brazil likely to remain excluded from the European market for the foreseeable future. All the indications suggest that the supply of top-quality prime cattle will decline still further and the NBA predicts that numbers could be almost 20 per cent lower in less than a year. This will inevitably mean that prices for quality cattle will go appreciably higher, possibly to little short of 300p per kilo, which is way above the 285p finishers are currently receiving in Scotland. If finishers of Holstein bulls can gain prices in the region of 270-280p per kilo, then the economics begin to stack up in a positive fashion.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government announced yesterday that it is in the process of conducting a fundamental review of how the nation can make the best use of Scotland's greatest asset – land – at a time when there is huge pressure on food prices and supplies.

An initial meeting of 70 invited experts will be held in late autumn, with a "summit" due to be staged some time in 2009.

Richard Lochhead, the Cabinet secretary for rural affairs, said: "We depend on land for the food on our table and the energy we consume. It dictates how we live. It is home to our unique flora and fauna. However, so far little has been done to examine how best these competing pressures can be managed as a whole. It is essential that we look at how we use rural land to everyone's benefit."

James Withers, the chief executive of NFU Scotland, is equally positive. He said: "Food supply has come back into prominence. However, at the same time we are witnessing the exodus from the hills of large numbers of people and livestock.

"This has potentially devastating implications both environmentally and socially in these fragile communities. We must look at how to arrest that decline to save Scotland's landscapes and food production resources."

In Brussels, where little happens during August and September with officials and politicians on their long summer break, there does at last seem to be some semblance of a realisation that food security deserves a higher profile.

The Scotsman has been reliably informed that there are growing concerns of how to avoid a burgeoning food import bill along the lines of the reliance of oil and gas from unreliable sources, most notably Russia. It looks as though food is moving up the agenda for the first time in over 50 years.