The Scottish Farmer this week catches up with Orkney beef farmer, Alistair Watson and ANM's Shetland auctioneer, Ellis Mutch, to find out more on maintaining the links that transport livestock to market from the islands. Claire Taylor reports:

Alistair Watson, Orkney

Orcadian Alastair Watson runs a beef and cattle business just outside Kirkwall, selling store animals to finishers on the mainland.

He runs 120 cows and 300 Texel cross sheep, keeping 20 home-bred heifers a year with everything else usually sold through Orkney Mart and on to Aberdeen, with some animals being sent direct to Thainstone.

His family have been using the ferry crossing between Kirkwall and Aberdeen for 45 years and have witnessed big changes to the service during that time. In the last couple of years, he explained that a road connecting the mart to the ferry lairage had been a big improvement.

“Anything that is sold through the mart, there is a direct road to the lairage and the sea containers can come to the mart to be filled, which cuts out that unnecessary lorry trip and is better for the animals,” he said.

For Alistair it isn’t just livestock that he needs to get off the island, but the ferries are vital for transporting animal feed and fertiliser, amongst other inputs to him.

“Living on an island is always going to come with additional costs attached, but you get very organised and learn to order ahead of time to take account of potential delays or other issues,” he continued.

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“If the weather is too cold, the ferries don’t run but that doesn’t happen too often. We have experienced some backlogs to goods we have ordered but you really have to think ahead.”

Commenting more generally on the weather this past year, he reflected that although there was a good harvest across the island, it had been very wet since October and there is a lot of straw left lying in the fields.

“I had 50-acres of barley, but luckily I work with early ripening varieties and we got most of it cut and baled before the wet weather came in. Farmers who had been trialling higher yielding, but later ripening varieties, won’t have been as lucky.”

Ellis Mutch, Shetland

Ellis Mutch is an auctioneer in Shetland, contracted through the ANM Group, at Thainstone.

He has been in the post for two years and explained that a lot of thought went into co-ordinating sales on the island and then booking space on the ferry which connects Lerwick to Aberdeen.

“Sales are seasonal on Shetland. We have one in February and April, then come the end of August we have weekly sales and there can be as many as four a week, right through to mid-November,” he said.

“During the busy sales period, the ferry route is enormously important to how livestock farming operates on the island and we have to book space well in advance to make sure we have space on the boat to match the sales.”

He explained that the Shetland Isles were even more exposed to the elements, so crossings were very weather dependant, but he is always amazed at how patient and accepting that farmers and crofters on the island are when ferries are cancelled.

“The boats are so important to farmers as Shetland’s grazing season is short and grass soon disappears, so we need to get the lamb crop off the island at the right time.

“This last season, since Covid, we have had more pressure on getting animals away on time, as there has been more things going out of Shetland from the fishing industry, so we have struggled more than usual to book space on the boat.”

Commenting on the journey the animals take overseas, he added: “The livestock containers are maintained to a really high standard, which is important as the livestock are travelling for 12 hours to the mainland. I’ve seen lambs come off the other side in Aberdeen nearly as clean as they were when they went on, as they are well looked after and not packed in.

"The Northlink team are brilliant to work with, they do a great job at loading the containers and making the whole process run smoothly,” he added.

Ellis explained that ANM introduced an online system at the backend of 2020 due to Covid travel restrictions and now all sales in Shetland continue to be open to online buyers too.

Opening the doors to buyers who previously hadn’t bought from Shetland, there had been a surge in interest. In 2019, 525 cattle and 44,973 sheep were sold through the mart, but these numbers had increased to 737 cattle and 74,816 sheep, in 2022.

“When Covid came in and ANM started the online auction, we saw a lot of interest from buyers who couldn’t previously make it to Shetland, due to its remote location and the logistics involved. It has been great to see more people taking an interest in Shetland's livestock and we have seen more farmers and crofters here selling through the mart, as opposed to direct to buyers.”

Ellis concluded by adding that the abattoir has been a lifeline to farmers and crofters on Shetland. “Our abattoir is a tremendous asset and is well used.

"In Shetland there are a lot of smaller isles where farmers and crofters put Shetland hoggs to graze for the winter, then gather them in and have them killed locally.

"So, a lot of people use it for home-kills and there is a lot of good farm shops and guys selling direct. Therefore, the combination of the abattoir and the ferries are crucial to supporting the livestock industry here on Shetland.”