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Four and a Half Good Reasons to be Confident
By Peter Morris, CEO National Sheep Association
The transition from optimism into confidence should be fairly seamless. With a couple of years of good prices behind us, I believe the sheep industry is now moving out of the optimistic stage and I detect a real sense of confidence for the future. There will undoubtedly be challenges going forward, however many of the fundamentals needed for a successful industry are in place which now need to be built upon. I see five big reasons why sheep farmers should be confident:
- There is a worldwide shortage of sheep meat
- A variety of supply chains are creating demand for a unique product, resulting in genuine competition.
- Producers are already technically very good, and there is significant untapped potential for further improvement
- We have a multifunctional, primarily food based industry, but with a significant role to play in environmental management
- We have an industry that has a good understanding and is in control of its costs???
The worldwide shortage of sheep meat is not going to change in the short or medium term and even if production increases across the world, there is every reason to be confident that demand will increase equally as fast, especially from emerging economies such as China.
Important as the multiple retailers are, thank goodness there is a strong export demand for lamb. The currency situation has played right into the hands of the sheep industry and has helped UK lamb be sold into European countries, especially France, at a competitive price, whilst leaving good returns over here. Then, add the ever expanding ethnic demand for sheep meat of all sorts, critically from cull ewes, the trade for which underpins everything. With those three elements plus a strong demand from independent butchers and the catering sector, we have a situation where positive competition really exists.
Sheep farmers continue to ‘do what they do’ better all the time. Many developments of recent times have made staggering differences to flock performance. I believe we are at the edge of another new dawn in respect of farming sheep. Where an improved understanding of genetic science, will have huge impacts on the ability to select for and against a whole range of genetically orientated factors, which amongst other things, will reduce endemic disease levels dramatically.
The humble sheep has a significant role to play as an environmental manager, both in terms of bio diversity enhancement and as a positive contributor to the battle against greenhouse gas emissions. Currently a lack of lateral thought and basic ignorance is blinkering many to the benefits that sheep can bring. However, that is a battle, which the industry can win and it will place the sheep in a very strong position in the eyes of the public and policy makers.
The question marks at the end of the last bullet point was not a typing error, it was deliberate. I regard understanding of the cost base as still being the weakest link in the sheep farming portfolio of ‘must know’ subjects. Whilst appreciating the difficulties of getting an accurate cost of production, especially in respect of fixed costs, I believe that without too much difficulty, a lot more understanding can be achieved by most producers, and doing that all adds to the bottom line.
Four and a half out of five is good going by anyone’s standards, so against that background it is difficult to be anything other than confident of a bright future for the sheep industry.
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