The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has called on the UK and EU to work together to ensure that NI is not adversely impacted by new post-Brexit arrangements coming under the NI protocol.

Under the agreement, both sides were to use their “best endeavours” to facilitate trade between NI and the rest of the UK.

However, the union argues that there is little evidence of this happening, particularly given the EU delay in authorising Britain as an approved third country to trade in various agricultural goods.

As well as concerns about the import of seed potatoes from 1 January 2021, the latest issue to emerge relates to breeding sheep. Up to 9,000 sheep come in each year from Scotland and the north of England for breeding in NI.

Some of these sheep have already been bought as ewe lambs, but under current disease rules they cannot move to NI until they are hoggets

Many of these sheep are hill breeds such as Blackface and Swaledale.

Some of these sheep have already been bought as ewe lambs, but under current disease rules they cannot move to NI until they are hoggets. In practice, that means they must be held until 1 January of the following year.

Under our current scrapie monitored scheme rules, run by SRUC, it takes seven years for a flock to become scrapie monitored

That now coincides with the end of the Brexit transition period. Under the NI protocol, farmers here must follow EU rules for goods, and the island of Ireland is treated as one single unit for animal and plant health.

With Britain a non-EU country, to import sheep into the EU they must be scrapie monitored.

“There are very few flocks in Scotland scrapie monitored and no Blackface flocks. Under our current scrapie monitored scheme rules, run by SRUC, it takes seven years for a flock to become scrapie monitored,” explained Aileen McFadzean from the Blackface Sheep Breeders’ Association.

She estimates that the trade in breeding sheep is worth around £1.8m per year, and that there could be up to 7,000 ewe lambs currently on winter grazing in Scotland, belonging to NI breeders.

“This will become a welfare issue as many of these ewe lambs are on dairy farms and only have grazing available for the winter,” she said.

She has written to DAERA Minister Edwin Poots urging him to investigate the possibility of a seven-year derogation from the rules.

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