18 April 2011

2 minute read

Europe

Speaking at the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers’ annual meeting in Edinburgh on Saturday (16 April), Mr McLaren said there was a growing body of scientific support highlighting the sustainability of production systems, such as those found in Scotland, where beef and lamb is produced on a largely grass-fed diet.

Mr McLaren said recently-published research by Professor Mike Wilkinson of Nottingham University’s School of Biosciences revealed that spring-calving/grass-finishing upland suckler beef and lowland lamb production were highly efficient on an edible feed conversion basis.

"What that means, in effect, is that our largely grass-based production system in Scotland is a much more efficient means of producing food than has previously been recognised," he said. "Our livestock production systems make the most of land which could not be used to produce other types of food for people.

"Looking at the figures for the UK as a whole about 42 million tonnes of grass and forage crop dry matter was estimated to have been used in 2008-2009 in the production of meat and milk from ruminants. Much of this land would otherwise be a largely inaccessible resource for the production of human food."

Pointing out that QMS would continue to work hard on behalf of the Scottish red meat industry to identify technology to further improve feed efficiency, Mr McLaren also highlighted a newly-published QMS discussion paper.

The paper, Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Scottish Livestock Enterprises, was published this month and highlights the clear link between low greenhouse gas emissions and strong technical performance on Scottish livestock farms.

Scottish farmers, said Mr McLaren, have already made a significant contribution to lower GHG emissions in Scotland with emissions from rural land use (excluding woodland) reducing by 12.5% between 1990 and 2006.

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