Comment: Brexit could be good news/bad news for sheep

Despite the continuing wet, stormy weather one still gets the feeling that ‘spring is in the air’. The days are getting longer and – when the sun does manage to break through – there is that sense of better times not being that far away.

Meanwhile, on farms across Northern Ireland, the spring lambing season is about to get underway in earnest.

Sheep has always been a cornerstone of farming In Northern Ireland: it’s important it stays that way. Brexit has the potential of being a good news: bad news story for the local sheep sector. Courtesy of the Irish protocol, contained within the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, the traditional cross-border trade in finished lambs should remain in place. Adding to this is the potential for Northern Ireland’s sheep sector to do greater levels of business with Europe.

And why is this? Well it is not beyond the realms of possibility that sheep producers in the South of England could find themselves paying a levy on lamb exports to France, if the current UK:EU27 trade talks take a wrong turning.

In such circumstances, there is nothing to stop local sheep farmers making up any trade shortfalls that may arise. This is due to the fact that farming and food in Northern Ireland will be marching whatever trading standards are agreed by Brussels into the future.

So much for the good news!

The talk of ending area payments is the downside of the equation for flockowners with breeding ewes. If farm minister Edwin Poots is intent on introducing a ‘Ewe Premium’ then the payment has to be pitched large enough to make keeping sheep viable for producers in both hill and lowland locations.

The other alternative of introducing a sheep variable premium scheme will provide little comfort for farmers with hill flocks – as very few of these people actually finish their lambs.

Maintaining a viable ewe population in Northern Ireland is crucially important from both a production and environmental point of view.

The production case is extremely easy to make: sheep can graze ground that is not suited for any other category of livestock.