A weather advisory panel has been established to rapidly share information and best practice in response to challenging weather conditions. The panel, announced at AgriScot on Wednesday, will be made up of the NFUS, Met Office, SEPA, RSABI, Scottish Government, Environment Link and Agricultural Industries Confederation. Clearing Banks have also been invited to join.

“Certain areas have seen the wettest weather for 80 years, resulting in animals being brought indoors earlier than normal, shortages of silage, and issues related to complying with slurry spreading regulations,” Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy Fergus Ewing said. He used the extension of slurry spreading deadlines in NVZs for approximately 30 farmers as an example of where this kind of taskforce is needed.

The NFUS president welcomed the move, saying that a fast-acting analysis of emerging weather events will help strengthen the resolve and resilience of farmers.

“Scotland’s farmers and crofters face the massive challenge of a very high-cost winter because of an exceptionally wet summer and autumn,” NFUS president Andrew McCornick said. “We must learn from the extreme flooding in early 2016 as well as the summer of 2017 where it wasn’t the high rainfall that did the damage but the lack of dry days when silage, harvest, slurry spreading or ploughing could be completed.”

No lynx in Scotland

At the discussion organised by the NFUS, Ewing also confirmed he would not support the reintroduction of lynx to the wild. An application made by Lynx UK Trust to release the animal is being considered by Natural England.

“There is no way that I could ever support the reintroduction of lynx to Scotland,” he said. “The most recent evidence, though it has yet to be confirmed, of the lynx that escaped from a poorly attended zoo in Wales, would make you weak. Farmers have enough problems at the moment without adding to them.”

Elsewhere at AgriScot the cabinet secretary was on hand to launch Scotland’s Healthy Animals website developed by Health Protection Scotland. He also announced a £4.6m pot of funding in the latest round of food processing, manufacturing and co-operation grants that will enable 15 projects supporting new products, upgrading and extending facilities.