THE sun has been shining and the grass has caught up from a slow start, we are hoping to get silage in three weeks earlier than we have in the previous couple of years.

The last few weeks have been hectic catching up with farm work after being a part of the invasion to the Borders by 27 Orcadians on a fantastic trip organised by Steven Sandison. He introduced us to some of the best beef farmers whom he had met during his Nuffield Scholarship and the amazing thing about the eight farms we saw was they all had different systems of management, yet all of them suited the land they were working.

We also visited the Beef Event at Fans which was a great way to escape election fever – something I wish we could vaccinate against! The range of fantastic information available from the various discussions and stands was well worth getting soaked for.

Whatever the outcome of Brexit is, and our current Government situation, we have one guarantee as an industry, and that is subsidy money to agriculture is going to reduce.

This is a particularly daunting prospect for farming in Orkney, in recent years a number of challenges have made margins tight. With no real powers to change the future of support, it has made us look inwards to our own business and see what efficiencies we can do ourselves.

While the Beef Efficiency Scheme has met opposition, it was a key driver in us finally getting cattle weigh scales, and at us looking to fit a decent permanent handling system, something we have considered for a long time but never actually bought.

Whilst some parts of the scheme have been extra work I think it is the correct direction we need to go to modernise beef production in this country.

As Robert Fleming said at the beef seminar at Fans, we are getting paid to carry out genomic assessment, a service which farmers across the world are having to buy in to receive the same benefit from.

As part of the SAYFC New Zealand study tour last November I saw the benefits of performance recording in cattle and they are now integrating genetic testing to this collected data and are able to identify the key markers that make the profitable cows stand out.

One of the main lessons I took away from New Zealand was efficiency – they are the world leaders in pasture management, the improvement in yield of dry matter they have achieved through innovative grazing systems and growing forage crops are amazing. Yes they have a better climate but already the people in this country trying out some of the ideas from down under are seeing increased yields, utilising the most valuable yet cheapest form of feed available to us.

The other area that the Kiwis excel at is identifying new markets and meeting the demand, they have industry and government representatives scouring the world looking for new opportunities, and this outward approach means they are supplying premium products around the world.

We visited Greenlea meats abattoir, they host potential buyers from Asia every week, showcasing what the country has to offer.

New Zealand is pushing to be one of the top suppliers in premium markets and they are focusing on what the customers want, and for beef, that is a consistently tasty and tender product, that is traceable, grass fed and GM free.

NZ beef is now being sold in upmarket supermarkets in the United States, a market I always imagined impregnable, and it shows they are willing to take on the giants of the beef industry in their own territory, much like lamb in this country.

They are achieving this consistency of quality through testing of carcasses post slaughter, focusing on traits that affect tenderness, juiciness and flavour, all the data is then fed back to the supply chain. There is a good video on youtube explaining the Silver Fern Farms Eating Quality (EQ) System which is worth a watch.

We visited Mt Linton station in the South Island where this data has been used to improve their cows, and they have managed to transform the herd through eight years of selective breeding to consistently achieve the desired traits and receive a quality bonus.

If we are to compete on a global market selling our beef as a premium product the EUROP scale will hold us back from achieving improvements.

When visiting one farm in NZ we asked why they did not produce beef animals with a bigger rear end – favoured by the EUROP scale, and the farmers answer was 70% of the value of the finished product was in just 7% of the animal, so there was no point producing masses of cheap cuts, they would rather leave the dairy cross bulls to meet the demand for the bulk meat market.

That is something we will have to consider if we are to compete on a global market, do we try and compete with the large producers by producing more quantity, or should we focus on producing a quality to match the strong branding we have already established?

That is where the EUROP scale constricts us to improve quality, if we are to keep selling into our existing markets as a high quality product we will need to back up our claims, otherwise there is a Green Isle to the south-west of us who are working hard to improve their product, and they would love to take our markets away.

One of the pleasures of farming is people are open to sharing ideas, whether it is on the other side of the country, or the world, and that is why being a part of the Agri Affairs committee as part of Young Farmers has been really enjoyable.

We have a study tour to Devon open for applications right now and I would recommend it to any Young farmers interested to apply, the trips I have been on through SAYFC have been fantastic and you always learn something new no matter where you go.