By Ewan Pate, farming editor

AGRISCOT HAS often been billed as a business event with a dairy show, but this year it was simply a business event with the cattle classes cancelled as a disease precaution.

With foot-and-mouth a recent threat and blue tongue restrictions across much of England, Robin Young, Agriscot chairman, justified the decision yesterday, saying, “It would have been irresponsible to bring these elite and valuable dairy animals here to Ingliston when there is any degree of risk.

“Obviously, we miss having them for the atmosphere and warmth which they bring to the show but it is a business event and the crowds have turned out.”

Although Agriscot does not release official attendance figures it was estimated at around 7000.

The halls at the Royal Highland Showground were well filled, with the space normally taken up by pens and judging rings filled by trade stands including an expanded machinery show.

The main morning seminar saw Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Richard Lochhead for the second day in a row locking horns with NFUS president Jim McLaren over the soon-to-be–imposed EU nitrates directive.

At the SAC conference on Tuesday it appeared the directive was to be agreed within days to allow the Scottish Rural Development Programme to proceed.

Yesterday Mr Lochead had backed off his position slightly, speaking about the nitrates directive only as a “potential stumbling block,” and saying there was “a very difficult fight ahead to which I am totally committed.”

Mr McLaren said, “We need an action plan that livestock farmers in the nitrate vulnerable zones can live with.

“We need to know what the EU requires of Scotland and if it takes two months to do it and the SRDP is delayed by two months then we will have to live with it. Simply agreeing a deal on nitrates just to get the SRDP approved quickly is too big a price to pay.”

Mr Lochhead conceded some delay saying, “There are a few weeks left here to plot the way ahead but I would be lynched if I was responsible for holding up the SRDP for two months.”

Quality Meat Scotland used the Agriscot platform to launch the annual report on the profitability of cattle and sheep enterprises. This refers to the 2006 livestock season before disease problems struck, but it still makes sobering reading.

QMS senior business analyst Stuart Ashworth said, “One of the main objectives is to let producers highlight strengths and weaknesses in their own businesses and to compare them with averages across the industry.

“To make this meaningful, we exclude single farm payment and less favoured area payments.”

The conclusions reveal that market prices would need to be two-and-a-half times the present rate to allow for a sufficient return to cover all costs, reward unpaid family labour and leave a 5% return on working capital excluding all subsidies.

“Only 4% of suckler herds achieved a positive net margin and no hill herds achieved this milestone,” said Mr Ashworth.

Cattle finishers fared slightly better in 2006 but still only half produced a positive net margin.

Sheep enterprises showed an improved performance, with 25% showing a positive net margin as against 20% the previous year.

The figures prove that without support payments the cattle and sheep sectors would be under severe pressure for all but the most efficient, but the value of the 50 pages of figures will be in allowing producers to find the technical areas where they are either lagging behind or forging ahead.