The National Sheep Association (NSA) Wales & Border Ram Sale has told the Welsh Government that its proposed Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) threatens the future of its sales. Held annually in Mid Wales the two sales have a turnover of more than £2million and provide 200 part time jobs for the local community.

NSA Wales & Border Executive Director, Jane Smith, says that it has, over more than 45 years, helped to radically improve the Welsh sheep breeding flock. The sales attract vendors and buyers from across the UK and beyond, providing top quality, veterinary inspected rams, within easy reach of Welsh buyers - 80% of the rams bought at the sales are destined to serve flocks in Powys, Wales.

This in turn continually and consistently improves the Welsh breeding flock, helping to maintain the vital PGI status of its lamb. The Welsh meat and meat products sector is worth £1.4 billion and vital to rural Wales in terms of the economy, culture and landscape.

Jane says: “If all these proposed SFS regulations and rules are imposed on Welsh farming it could be catastrophic. This will hit not just farmers, but allied industries too and could lead to the demise of Welsh farming as we know it.”

The NSA Wales & Border ram sales play an important role in contributing to the business of several local auctioneers. Last year’s main sale at the Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells had a £2,050,929.88 turnover, while August’s early sale had a turnover of £104,786.98.

The NSA Wales & Border Main Sale typically attracts in the region of 3,500 entries from across more than 20 sheep breeds, selling across 16 rings. Its significance was underlined when HRH Princess Royal attended the 40th anniversary sale in 2018, the Queen Mother having supported the sales from 1981 to the mid 1990s.

The NSA Wales & Border committee is extremely concerned that the Welsh Government’s current proposals set out in the SFS consultation means a projected reduction of 122,000 livestock units across Wales in the next five years. This could potentially equate to the loss of 800,000 sheep from Wales’s total flock of 4.8 million breeding ewes, threatening future viability of the NSA sales as well as others.