Scottish hill farmers and crofters are in line for a payment boost of around £6/head for their ewe lambs, as over 11,000 fewer animals were claimed for in 2018.

The Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme could pay out an estimated rate of £70/head, because of the 10% drop in claims.

While lamb numbers took a sharp drop, the amount of claimants fell by only 19, to 1,142.

A difficult lambing last spring, coupled with uncertainty over the sheep sector during Brexit, have been cited as reasons for the record-low lamb claim.

“Sadly, it doesn’t surprise me,” said Robert MacDonald, chair of NFU Scotland’s Less Favoured Area’s committee.

“It proves we had a really tough lambing season last year. There were bound to be less ewe lambs kept back.

“We also have the unknown over Brexit. With any uncertainty, many will be getting rid of sheep. There is so much uncertainty people are voting with their feet and getting out rather than running the risk.”

The figures obtained by Farmers Journal Scotland are the initial claimed numbers and may fall further if farmers and crofters fail inspections, as the Scottish Government is yet to complete the process. The 1,142 claimants will share a pot of around £6m, and have received £63.23/head for last year’s claim.

Drop in flock numbers

The UK breeding flock had fallen by 4% to just over 14m head in 2018.

This is the largest drop in the sheep flock since the removal of headage payments over 10 years ago.

The situation is leading experts at ADHB to estimate a smaller lamb crop in 2018 – which could be the smallest since 2010.

Based on historic lamb survival percentages, and trends on the December census breeding flock, the 2019 UK lamb crop could be less than 16.5m head.