Additional mart data to be published on QMS website

From the start of 2024, a change in contractual arrangements in England and Wales meant that AHDB is no longer publishing liveweight mart data from around GB on its website.

Executive director of IAAS, Neil Wilson, said: “We are aware how important the latest price information is to business-making decisions on livestock farms across the country and have been in discussions for several months on how we, as an industry, can continue to provide access to useful and independent market data.

“As a first step, IAAS is working with QMS and ScotEID to enhance what QMS currently publishes and some of that information is now available. We will continue to look at different options for making more comprehensive data available depending on what livestock farmers feel they need for their businesses, and we would like producers to feed back to us on this.”

QMS currently publishes auction market data for finished/prime and cull stock sold at Scottish auction markets. The updated arrangement will include information from the Border Marts as well as store stock data. QMS Chief Executive Sarah Millar said:

“We are very pleased to be working with IAAS and ScotEID on making this information available so producers can make those important informed decisions that will help maximise margins. This data is also integral alongside and in the context of other data from across the industry for our Market Intelligence team to provide analysis and insights to support this on-farm decision making.”

ScotEID independently processes and verifies Scottish mart information before it is publicly published and has been working with IAAS for several years to provide this for QMS and others. This independent oversight ensures that the integrity and credibility of the information is of the highest quality.

“To put the power of the data into context, the livestock pricing from Scottish marts represents over 20% of all GB cattle and sheep sales, therefore providing a very reliable indicator and driver of GB trade,” explains Scott McDowell at ScotEID.

IAAS will be seeking feedback from the livestock industry stakeholders on how this information is presented and made available in the longer term so that it benefits the whole industry into the future, explains Neil Wilson:

“Whilst this remains a free resource in Scotland, there is significant cost involved in processing, cleaning and presenting the data and IAAS is keen to hear feedback from producers on how this data could be presented more effectively or offer more insight to aid on-farm decision making.”

The live market pricing data can be found here: https://qmscotland.co.uk/markets-prices/market-prices.