SAC targets research to curb lamb disease

A LAMB disease that can cause the loss of more than 10 per cent of the crop in some parts of Scotland will become one of the main pieces of research at the Scottish Agricultural College, hill farm unit at Crianlarich.

Plant-induced photosensitisation is caused when young lambs are brought up in peaty wet areas where bog asphodel grows. Any ingestion of this yellow-flowered member of the lily family initially causes damage to the liver followed by an estimated 10 per cent mortality rate. Norway has had a similar problem for years and areas of western Australia also have plants that can cause similar toxicity and death.

Many shepherds in hill areas either try to keep stock away from areas where the plant thrives or they accept the scale of losses incurred. However, Tony Waterhouse of SAC said this week that it is hopeful of starting a research project to try and pin down the disease, commonly known as yellowosis, and reduce losses of lambs on the hills.

While cash for the project has been earmarked by SAC, he said there remained a shortfall, and other funding sources would be required to ensure the programme went ahead with as much impetus as possible.

Tackling this problem, he claimed would lead to improved returns on many units where, without subsidies, there is a negative farm income.

The operation of the SAC hill units of Kirkton and Auchtertyre, which cover more than 2,000 hectares including a Munro, has come under criticism in recent years for not addressing some of the problem facing hill farmers.

Waterhouse accepted that there had not been a great deal of research carried out, but claimed this was due in part to the previous government having different priorities. The situation had changed with issues such as food security climbing up the agenda.

At the same time, a strategy group under the chairmanship of Iain Duncan Miller and including representatives of organisations such as the National Farmers Union of Scotland the Moredun Institute had identified a number of priorities, including work on photosensitisation, for the research base. The plan, which also includes building up the hefted Blackface flock to 1,800 ewes, will look at introducing Estimated Breeding Values into a high hill environment; an issue resisted up to now by many traditional hill sheep farmers.

NFUS president Nigel Miller referred to using Kirkton to help bring a new generation of shepherds into the industry, which was at a “pivotal point”, with increased consumer demand for lamb and changes in the common agricultural policy that would improve financial returns for hill livestock farmers.

The lack of labour resonated with Sybill MacPherson, who farms at Brackley, Dalmally, and chairs the advisory group at Kirkton. She said it was increasingly difficult to get shepherds with dogs that could now go out and gather sheep and she had real fears of land abandonment.