Scottish welfare disposal scheme launched

The Scottish Government today launched a welfare disposal scheme for light lambs aimed at averting an animal welfare catastrophe on Scotland’s hills. 

Around 250,000 hill lambs of up to 25kg liveweight will be eligible for the scheme which, depending on uptake, will cost £5-£6 million to administer.

Farmers who choose to use the scheme will be paid £15 for light lambs with payment being made within a couple of weeks of their animals entering the scheme.

The scheme is set to run for 10 weeks and will involve 18 collection centres and four abattoirs (Dingwall, Galashiels, Kilmarnock and Carlisle) with a collective maximum daily operating capacity of 24,000 lambs.

Carcasses will be rendered or incinerated and will not enter the human food chain.

Government officials outlining the details of the scheme emphasised that farmers should pre-book lambs with collection centres.

Charles Milne, Scotland’s chief veterinary officer, said there were no plans to include cast ewes in this scheme.

“The pressing need is to do something for the light lambs on the hills which have only 30% of their summer carrying capacity at this time of year. The grass has stopped growing and there is no simple way to get feed to them,” said Mr Milne.

“Ewes have always been consumed on the domestic market. This welfare scheme is to address the problem of light lambs. Scotland is one of the biggest producers of light lamb in Europe and we are heavily reliant on exports.

“We have lost two and a half months of export trade and have large numbers of lambs left on the hills for which there is no market. We are faced with a very stark choice – leaving these lambs on the hills to suffer or providing an alternative humane way of destroying them,” he added.

And Mr Milne emphasised that hill farmers, who usually receive 70% of their income at this time of year, are not in a position to buy additional feeding.

“This is a welfare scheme – we are not compensating farmers. There is a nominal payment which is only approximately 50% of what they would get if they could access the export market. I don’t think any farmers would choose to go into this scheme for economic reasons,” he said.

Scottish government officials said their understanding was the disposal scheme planned for Wales was expected to be very similar.

“They are a bit behind us in announcing their scheme and it may be because they are further south they don’t have quite the same problems in terms of climate and grass growth for the moment but they are recognising that will come.”

Mike Flynn, chief superintendent of the SSPCA, gave his backing to the scheme. “There are already reports of livestock mortalities in these regions, and if the situation remains it will put these light lambs at severe risk of starvation.”

And Richard Lochhead, Scottish cabinet secretary for rural affairs, was emphatic the UK Government should bear the costs of the scheme. 

“But action is needed now and we will provide funding on an emergency interim basis and seek to recover this from Defra in due course,” said Mr Lochhead.

More information on the scheme can be found on the Scottish Executive website.