By Ewan Pate, farming editor

SALES OF breeding and store stock are to be allowed to resume from Thursday as long as the general disease situation does not worsen.

The announcement, made yesterday by Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Richard Lochhead, will come as a huge relief to farmers and will bring Scotland in line with England and Wales, which had already set Thursday as the start date for these vital autumn sales.

The good news comes at the end of another difficult week for livestock farmers, during which there have been increasing calls for Scotland to go it alone on foot-and-mouth disease policy.

The Scottish Government effort, led personally by First Minister Alex Salmond and Mr Lochhead, has firmly put the onus on DEFRA and UK Environment Secretary Hilary Benn to supply funds for a light lamb welfare cull.

This is not only because DEFRA is seen as having a moral responsibility, having failed to keep the virus safely confined within the research premises at Pirbright and then not completely eradicating the outbreak in its first phase in August.

There is a more pragmatic reason.

To ensure that a welfare cull is not seen as an unfair state aid within the EU the scheme needs to be approved in Brussels.

In turn, that means that the scheme can only be proposed by an EU member state, in this case the UK under the supervision of Mr Benn.

However, for Conservative MSP John Scott, who is also a hill farmer in South Ayrshire, there is a compelling case for the Scottish Government to ignore the formalities and set up a scheme within days funded from its own reserves.

Late yesterday there were suggestions that a compromise might be reached, with Scottish funds being used initially to be eventually reimbursed by DEFRA.

Any scheme looks likely to pay £15 per head for light lambs, although NFUS president Jim McLaren has called for £20 per head.

On top of the rate paid to farmers any scheme would need to cover transport, slaughter and rendering charges.

Even though store markets resume there is still likely to be a need for a welfare cull as long as the export markets for light lambs remain out of reach.

Allan Jess, president of the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW) yesterday confirmed there was sufficient capacity for rending or incineration in Scotland to cope with a welfare cull and that tenders were being prepared to allow processors to quote for the work.

Industry sources have suggested that the costs once the lambs leave the farm or collection centre could be another £20 per head.

The Scottish Beef Cattle Association (SBCA) has also called for unilateral Scottish action, but this time on declaring the country as a separate low-risk region.

The present approach is to have the whole of Britain, apart from the zone around the infected areas of Surrey and the adjacent Home Counties, classified as low risk.

SBCA development director Brian Simpson said, “Scotland has been let down badly and nobody knows that better than our Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead.

“He needs all our support to make DEFRA wake-up to immediate demands for temporary relaxations in drivers’ hours to tackle the backlog of stock.

“There is also a need for a clear policy in order to get exports restarted from low-risk areas.

“Scotland differs from the rest of the UK in many ways, not least in having a premium beef product which can only achieve its full value by reaching discerning customers throughout Europe.

“The industry must play its part and SBCA is determined that Scotland must take no unwarranted risks.

“To achieve our goals it is vital that we resist livestock transfers from south of the border until foot-and-mouth and bluetongue are fully controlled.”

However, his call for a closed border is sure to be resisted by meat processors, who rely on live cattle transfers from the north of England to keep abattoirs running at economic capacity.

They have said the call for a closed border is “premature.”

The situation has led to the four-day October Perth bull sales being postponed for three weeks.

They will now start on Monday, November 12 and run in the order originally planned.

United Auctions chairman David Leggat said, “We felt the priority should be with moving the backlog of stores and breeding stock and that the three-week delay would give everyone more time to catch up.”

Meanwhile, bluetongue disease continues to spread in Suffolk, with DEFRA no longer confirming numbers of animals infected although these are now believed to be in double figures.

The problem is now officially described as an outbreak.