Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

More than a third of Scottish sheep failing to meet market specifications

Almost 40% of Scottish sheep are not meeting market specifications.
Almost 40% of Scottish sheep are not meeting market specifications.

More than a third of Scottish sheep are failing to meet market specifications when farmers and crofters send them for slaughter.

Data from Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) reveals almost 40% of sheep and 30% of beef cattle in Scotland are out-of-spec at the point of slaughter.

The red meat levy body is now urging farmers and crofters to make use of its virtual carcase grading tool – Meat the Grade – which aims to help farmers select livestock for slaughter.

QMS cattle and sheep specialist Beth Alexander, who helped develop the free grading tool, said animals being overweight and overfat were two of the most common reasons for carcases not meeting market specifications.

“Only 72.7% of the steers and 60.9% of lambs processed by Scottish price reporting abattoirs in 2020 met specification,” said Ms Alexander.

“When we’re talking about specification, for lamb we are talking about an E, U, or R grade for conformation, a 2 and 3L for fat and up to 21kg deadweight with a large number of processors not paying for any weight past 21kg.”

She said specifications for cattle were conformation grades of E, U or R and a 2, 3 and 4L for fat.

“Many processors are inflicting penalties for [cattle] carcases over 420kg deadweight, though some have reduced this to 400kg,” added Ms Alexander.

“It depends how, when and where you are marketing your livestock.”

She urged farmers to make use of the grading tool, which provides information on the requirements of the whole supply chain from abattoir grading systems and hygiene requirements to consumer preferences.

“It’s really worthwhile familiarising yourself with the tool as there is a lot of practical information about grading and what processors are looking for,” added Ms Alexander.

The tool is available on the QMS website at qmscotland.co.uk