Agriculture / Uradale Farm scoops native breed award

URADALE Farm, outside Scalloway, has been named sustainable farm of the year by the annual Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) awards.

The trust promotes Britain’s native breeds as livestock with a future role in food production.

The RBST food and farming sustainability awards were announced at the Royal Highland Show last week.

Run by father and son team Ronnie and Jakob Eunson, the organic farm looks after a flock of native Shetland sheep and a herd of Shetland kye.

All young stock are fattened on the farm before processing at the local abattoir.

Ronnie Eunson said: “Within the current international context of climate change, wars and political instability, native breeds offer an efficiency of production modern breeds cannot match.”

He added that sales of beef and lamb continue to make an impact outwith Shetland, while local consumption is growing more slowly due to the dominance of supermarkets on the islands.

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Numbers of traditional style Shetland sheep are still dropping throughout the isles while the kye are stable at a couple of hundred.

Eunson said that 40 years ago the local cattle breed was on the verge of extinction with only 27 cows and three sire lines left.

“Despite the desperately low numbers of all native stock, Shetland still is thought to retain the longest list of indigenous animals and crops,” he said.

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