Support from Politicians for Orkney's Abattoir.

UPDATE - There is now an on line petition for Orkney abattoir that you can sign if you wish.  Your comments are really helpful.  Thank you.

Even before Orkney's abattoir suddenly closed on 11 January our politicians were raising the issue of the vital need for the Protected Name Status of Orkney's meat products to be protected after Brexit.
The Northern Isles MP, Alistair Carmichael "called on the UK Government to prioritise international agreement on protection for geographically special produce after Britain leaves the EU."
Carmichael: Protection for islands produce must continue July 21 2017

A Highlands and Islands MSP, Maree Todd, also in 2017 "demanded that the UK Government upholds the protected food names scheme in Scotland in all future trade deals".  Also reported was that:
"Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Connectivity, Fergus Ewing, has written to the UK government’s secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs Michael Gove, to seek assurances around the protection of UK food names in EU trade deals, without which our producers could be commercially disadvantaged."
Northern Isles produce must be protected in future trade deals, warns Highlands and Islands MSP October 7 2017

Orkney has 3 meat products protected in this way.  Orkney Beef and Orkney Lamb gained protected status in 1996, while the application for North Ronaldsay mutton was submitted in 2016.

In March of this year our MP again raised the issue with the UK Government.  ‘PDO’s must be maintained post-Brexit’, says Carmichael
Although this time the article did note that:  "Another problem facing Orkney’s protected food, specifically Orkney Beef and Orkney Lamb, came with the closure of Orkney’s only abattoir in Kirkwall, earlier this year. For a product to hold either the Orkney Beef or Orkney Lamb, name the animal has to be slaughtered here in Orkney, meaning without an abattoir, neither of these products can be produced."

These protected designations are important and reflect the value of Food and Drink in Scotland's economy.
From 2016 in this article from The Orcadian
Scotland’s cabinet secretary for rural affairs, food and the environment, Richard Lochhead, welcomed the applications from A Yarn From North Ronaldsay and the North Ronaldsay Sheep Court, commenting: “Scotland is world-famous for our wonderful produce, and people want to know they are buying the real deal."
“Achieving PGI status for both North Ronaldsay wool and mutton will ensure that consumers at home and abroad have a one hundred per cent guarantee of the product’s authenticity.”

So the lack of local abattoir service in Orkney goes beyond just a few local farmers.  To enable Orkney to contribute more significantly to Scotland's Food Industry, including exports, we must have a local abattoir.

I continue to read the growing number of comments from people on the online petition, so many saying the same thing,  "Orkney MUST have an abattoir".   Increasing awareness of the situation in North Ronaldsay is giving great urgency to this need.

 When the shocking news about the closure of the abattoir broke in January, our politicians were quick to respond.  On 12 January 2018 The Orcadian reported, Rural secretary agrees to “urgent meeting” with abattoir stakeholders, says McArthur.
"The Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Connectivity, Fergus Ewing MSP has agreed to an “urgent meeting” with stakeholders involved with the abattoir in Kirkwall, according to Orkney MSP Liam McArthur."

What Liam McArthur said in that article does sum up the gravity of the situation.
“This news will be met with genuine shock across Orkney. It has extremely serious implications for farming in the islands, as well as for the wider food and drink sector. These are absolute lynchpins of the Orkney economy.

“I am particularly concerned at the impact this could have on the protected designation status of Orkney beef and lamb, as well as the consequences for other local livestock producers. Likewise, there seem to be serious questions about how we deal with animal welfare issues going forward in the absence of an emergency slaughter facility.

“I have already spoken this afternoon with Orkney Islands Council, Orkney Mart and local meat producers to discuss the next steps. In addition, I have been in contact with the Cabinet Secretary, Fergus Ewing MSP, who has agreed to an urgent meeting next week with local stakeholders to consider both the short-term and longer-term options.

“As I have said before, however, for an economy and community so dependent on high-quality livestock farming, it seems inconceivable to me that Orkney could be left without a local abattoir.”

More meetings were reported in the following weeks.

After the meeting in February hopes were raised for both a swift solution to the need for a new small abattoir and possible temporary reopening of the existing building, and this was the perceived situation in Orkney throughout the following months.

Then earlier this month the news broke that efforts to raise funding for the capital cost of the new abattoir hadn't progressed as everyone had hoped.

Once again our local politicians have been swift to respond, and I have to take some measure of hope in what they say.  When Orkney's MSP, Liam McArthur, who knows Orkney and its rural economy so well says, "As I have said before, for a community as heavily reliant on agriculture as Orkney, the idea that we could find ourselves without the means of slaughtering livestock locally seems inconceivable" and "I intend to continue doing what I can do to ensure no stone is left unturned in pursuing a solution", we know we aren't fighting unsupported.

A Highlands and Islands MSP, Maree Todd, in the following week, when talking about Fergus Ewing's visit to Orkney next month said, "An Orkney-specific agricultural issue that I am sure Fergus will pick up on is the case for an abattoir for the islands, and it is bound to be at the top of his agenda when he visits next month."

Our hope is that Mr Ewing will indeed be able to fully understand the urgent and critical need for Orkney to have a local abattoir service.  We hope that he will be able to work with our local politicians & leaders to bring this about.  That they can enable Orkney to have the vital public infrastructure of an abattoir that will equip us to meed the challenges of the coming months and years with increased resilience.  Indeed more than that.  That we farmers and food producers in Orkney can, with a local abattoir, make a growing and positive contribution to Scotland's economy through our livestock and meat.

North Ronaldsay Sheep - A Living Cultural Heritage

UPDATE - There is now an on line petition for Orkney abattoir that you can sign if you wish.

Scotland has a little recognised living cultural heritage in its breeds of primitive sheep surviving on Scotland's islands. In Shetland the breed is Shetland, in Orkney it's North Ronaldsay sheep, in the Western Isles it's the Hebridean, while in the now depopulated St Kilda the breeds are Soay and Boreray. The latter is the last living link with the now extinct Old Scottish ShortWool sheep.

North Ronaldsay, Orkney’s tiny northernmost island, is home to an internationally significant ancient breed of sheep that are the only domesticated sheep still to be managed under a unique communal system of farming. The North Ronaldsay sheep are a primitive breed virtually unchanged from Neolithic times. http://www.theorkneysheepfoundation.org.uk/the-sheep/

The sheep dyke that keeps the sheep on the shore is Grade A listed, regarded by Historic Scotland as 'probably the largest drystone construction conceived of as a single entity in the world’. 

 The small population of North Ronaldsay has met the challenges of storm damage & deterioration of the dyke with resilient fortitude and created the North Ronaldsay Trust,  Orkney Sheep Foundation and North Ronaldsay Sheep Festival that are having such a positive effect.    

There are now young people and families wanting to move onto the island and there is a new project to make derelict houses habitable again. You can hear more about this in the recording of the BBC Around Orkney radio programme on Thursday 16 August.

 So, through the efforts of the islanders the preservation of this communal farming system, a living example of Scotland’s cultural heritage, was looking promising until North Ronaldsay lost its only means, with the closure of Orkney abattoir, of having the sheep slaughtered in small groups throughout the winter months to produce their renowned mutton.

There are some North Ronaldsay sheep now kept in flocks elsewhere in the UK but they have changed in behaviour and physiology from the sheep still on the shores of North Ronaldsay. The adaptation to enable the sheep to survive on seaweed means those from the island could die from copper toxicity if kept permanently on pasture. The genes could be preserved, but the cultural and behavioural heritage, once lost, will be gone for ever.

This veterinary article explains some of the difficulties and challenges of keeping North Ronaldsay sheep away from the island. 

The ewes, as described here, are bought onto pasture just before lambing and for a few weeks during the summer, but must return to the shore with their lambs.

There are some fascinating photographs here of the punding and shearing of the North Ronaldsay sheep in the 1930's.  What is most notable is how little it has changed.  The farmers' clothes are different, but otherwise much remains the same, including the sheep being hand sheared with blade shears.

There is film from BBC of the North Ronaldsay sheep when Adam Henson visited the island, and a few months ago The Scotsman published an article, Saving the ancient seaweed-eating sheep of North Ronaldsay

I wrote about the sheep and the North Ronaldsay spinning mill in an article for Wovember, which can be viewed here.

I'd like to finish with quotes from two books.

In An Island Saga (p128) Mary A Scott says, "We may hope, however, that this famous breed, which has lasted so long, will not be allowed to preish from the earth."

In A Window on North Ronaldsay (p105) Peter A Tulloch says, "So everything considered, it would be an evil day if any disaster were to overtake that special breed of North Ronaldsay's native sheep."

Saving the ancient seaweed-eating sheep of North Ronaldsay

Read more at: https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/saving-the-ancient-seaweed-eating-sheep-of-north-ronaldsay-1-4592571

Saving the ancient seaweed-eating sheep of North Ronaldsay

Read more at: https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/saving-the-ancient-seaweed-eating-sheep-of-north-ronaldsay-1-4592571

Saving the ancient seaweed-eating sheep of North Ronaldsay

Read more at: https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/saving-the-ancient-seaweed-eating-sheep-of-north-ronaldsay-1-4592571

Abattoir options for Orkney farmers further reduced.

 UPDATE - There is now an on line petition for Orkney abattoir that you can sign if you wish. 

 Orkney farmers can no longer use Shetland abattoir for livestock that can't go to Dingwall.

To begin, I'd like to emphasise that the purpose of  'Orkney Needs An Abattoir' is to demonstrate the high level of support and encouragement to any and all who might be prepared to pursue the aim of getting a local abattoir service resumed in Orkney.

After such overwhelming and virtually universal support at Dounby Show, on Friday I started gathering more information about possible slaughter options for Orkney livestock.  I had a very helpful conversation with Cecil Eunson, chairman of Shetland Livestock Marketing Group which includes Shetland abattoir, but I did learn from him bad news for some Orkney farmers.

Since Orkney abattoir closed in January 2018 some farmers have been sending livestock on the overnight ferry to Shetland to go through their small abattoir.  The handling conditions and experienced staff there mean animals that can't use large abattoirs can go through with less stress and producing the best quality meat.  This is the system that North Ronaldsay was able to use earlier in the year for the unique seaweed-eating North Ronaldsay sheep.  North Ronaldsay mutton is popular with tourists, prized by Gourmet lovers and top London restaurants, and is an important part of the island's economy.

The Orcadian : February 22nd 2018

Shetland has an Animal Health Scheme (SAHS) to protect the health status of livestock in Shetland and prevent selected diseases entering Shetland from outside.  This scheme, so important for Shetland farming, does however mean that livestock from Orkney can no longer travel to Shetland to go through their abattoir. This includes North Ronaldsay sheep.  Those who have used Shetland abattoir in the past few months have only recently heard that this is no longer possible, so I've not heard if any alternative possibilities have yet emerged for pigs, goats and those primitive breeds of sheep that can't go through Dingwall.

County Show

On Saturday we went to the County Show, armed with petitions and hoping we could meet as many people as possible to pass on the latest developments in Orkney's abattoir service, and to hear their views and any relevant information they could share with us.  We added the news about the loss of the Shetland abattoir to the notes at the top of the petition pages.

 The response was even more overwhelming than at Dounby Show.  It became clear that many people thought that plans for the abattoir were going well and were expecting an abattoir service to be available again in Orkney later this year.  Great shock as we had to pass on news of the actual current situation.

Once again so many people were almost grabbing the petition from us in their eagerness to sign, and passing it round groups of friends and family.  It just demonstrated even more clearly that the desire to have an abattoir service is extremely strong and almost universal.  With enough people and petition sheets I think most of the 8000 or more present at the show would have signed!

I'd like to thank again all of those who gave up their time at the show to talk to us.  Some had very valuable information to share with us and it was fantastic that the County Show attracts so many from outside Orkney.  We really were able to learn a great deal from people, including visitors with detailed information about some of the other Scottish Island Abattoirs.

I'm burning the midnight oil going a wide range of information, including documents emailed to me, pages from the Community Owned Assets section of the Highlands and Islands Enterprise website, and the recently enacted Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 that so many up here have worked hard to achieve.  I'll do another blog post when I've been able to pull a bit more of this together and more local information has emerged.

Two things I do want to mention now, because they cropped up in a number of conversations with people at both Dounby and County Shows.
While it is very sad that the Butchers' Consortium haven't been able to progress with plans for a new abattoir as we'd all hoped, and as many believed was still progressing, I think it's worth remembering that they have been able to work with Dingwall abattoir to continue to reliably keep supplying us with Orkney reared beef and lamb.  That is for the benefit of us all.
The Council supported the old abattoir for 5 years with a level of subsidy that, I think many will agree, was unsustainable and unreasonable in the long term.  They ensured our schools and other public services were able to serve the high quality of local meat that Orkney supplies.  They have been faced, as has been filling local media this year, with having to make a smaller budget meet ever greater needs.
What is emerging as I've started to go through Scottish Government policy documents is that there are policies and obligations to Scotland's island communities that suggest Government funding may be appropriate to some level.

The public good and public benefits on so many levels of having a local abattoir, for our farmers, food businesses, tourism businesses and more has become increasingly obvious the more I read.
The benefit for Orcadians and visitors alike of being able to enjoy the highest quality of a wide range of meats, with provenance, traceability & welfare second to none.
The public good for those outside Orkney being able to buy such meat, with guaranteed provenance including the hard-won PDO's, from local commercial outlets & eating establishments, or directly from Orkney farmers or an Orkney mail order business, and the financial benefits such business will bring back into Orkney.
Investment in the essential public infrastructure of an appropriately sized abattoir can bring multiplied returns for our economy and community.

Jane Cooper
Abattoir@runbox.com

Orkney Needs An Abattoir

UPDATE - There is now an on line petition for Orkney abattoir that you can sign if you wish. 

On Wednesday 8 August I learnt for the first time that plans to build a new small abattoir in Orkney, adjacent to the existing Mart, hadn't been able to progress as everyone had hoped, and it seems may have stalled completely.

Over the past 8 months I'd got the strong impression from talking to people around Orkney that there was an overwhelming feeling that Orkney MUST have an abattoir.  That personal feeling is one thing, but I felt it was time to find out if that really was the case and, if so, to produce tangible evidence of it.

So the rest of the day was spent trying to contact various people to find out more about the current situation and I put together a petition to take to Dounby Show, to see if anyone wanted to sign it, listen to anything they had to say and to get written comments about the situation.

The weather for the show was kind this year and the ground was good for walking on.  I very much enjoy going to Dounby Show every year, and this year didn't disappoint.  Some wonderful livestock, great displays and crowds of people having a grand day out.  Lovely to see the shearing competition back again.

A rather different show experience this year for me and my husband, who helped with chatting to people and taking round the petition.  We were both totally overwhelmed at the response.  I felt, as I wrote above, that there was a strong desire for Orkney to have an abattoir service, but I had no idea how universal that feeling was and how strong it was.

A small selection of the comments people wrote down:
"Absolutely essential for island community"
"We need an abattoir"
"Obviously there has to be an abattoir"
"Essential service"
"Utterly necessary"
"Need to get a meeting organises ASAP"
"Orkney needs this"
"We are going backwards not forwards"
"Disgraceful not having one"
"Desperately needed"
"Very much needed"
"We really need this"
"Orkney meat brand was hard won - no abattoir means loss of brand"
"We need a facility to be self-sufficient post Brexit"
"It's a disgrace this facility doesn't exist in Orkney"
"Obviously very necessary"
"A real necessity for Orkney and welfare of the beasts"
"What happened to common sense? Just do it!"
"The council should support the Orkney farm animals and jobs"
"Save Orkney Beef"
"Of course Orkney needs an abattoir for welfare & jobs"
"We know what it's like without one" (visitor from Caithness)
"Crazy not to"
"Essential to get one again!!"
"A necessity no matter where one lives! An essential need!" (farming visitor from Australia)
"As a goatkeeper much needed by us"
"Goatmeat production can only expand with an abattoir locally"
"Must happen"
"No use without it"
"Of course we need a bloody abattoir"

Nearly 500 people signed the petition - we were staggered at how keen so many people were to show their support for Orkney having an abattoir.



Many people took time to talk to us, and we learnt a great deal about the history of the abattoir service in Orkney, more about the current situation, offers of help and advice.  We thank everyone who gave up their time at the show to share their knowledge, experience and views.

For those who may have missed all the news on radio, newspapers and television over the last 8 months, my understanding of the current situation, to the best of my knowledge, is this:

• There is now no pork or goat meat able to be produced for commercial sale in Orkney.

• The butchers in Orkney have been able to make arrangements for cattle & lambs to travel to Dingwall for slaughter so that Orkney reared meat can be sold in Orkney.

• North Ronaldsay farmers, with the help of Shetland abattoir, and some luck with weather and ferries, were able to get sheep off for slaughter in March so that tourists and residents have been able to enjoy North Ronaldsay mutton this season.

• I've not been able to find a way to get my primitive rare breed sheep slaughtered in the stress-free conditions that Orkney abattoir staff provided so ably, so no Boreray mutton has been produced this year for sale locally and in Scotland.  There may be other farmers of rare breed livestock in Orkney similarly affected.

I have a personal interest in getting an abattoir service back in Orkney, as a farmer  (see above), as a resident of Orkney wanting the best for our islands, and as a shopper.  For over 3 decades now, in common with an increasing number of people, I've been choosing to buy meat from good local butchers, farm shops or on line directly from farms  so that I could enjoy the finest quality of meat from different breeds, supporting rare breeds, and focusing on the welfare of the animals from farm to slaughter.

You can read more about Boreray sheep in Orkney and what they can offer interested farmers in the current issue of Orkney Farmer.

Tomorrow I'll be at County Show with the petition and hoping to talk to even more people to find out more information about the current situation and to get more advice about possible ways people could work towards getting a suitably sized, modern & sustainable local abattoir service in Orkney.

The really positive thing for everyone involved in future planning for an Orkney abattoir to take from yesterday is that there is overwhelming support for an abattoir here and strong feeling that it should be regarded as an essential service for our community.


 Jane Cooper
Abattoir@runbox.com