National Sheep Association

How are you, Phil? very well thank you nice to meet you you too it's pleasure to have you how how how have things been this year it's been a strange year agriculturally with weather and whatnot but where are you based have you had the drought

yeah so yes to a lot of those questions i guess i'm based in gloucestershire uh the nsa i'm chief executive of the national sheep association and the nsa is based at northern in worcestershire so i'm turning here in the sort of southwest or the west midlands and it's you're quite right it's been a really strange year i mean uh the good thing is that we've had a fairly sustained period now of strong sheep prices.

The markets have been really good, but that doesn't tell the whole picture, you know, and again, we all know that the input costs are just, you know, through the roof at the moment and don't seem to be slowing down at all.

But also the drought has been just horrific.

I agree.

We'll get on to NSA.

All that entails, Phil, your role and what National Sheep Association is itself.

Before we do, I always like to hear a bit from people.

I think I should play a quick voice note from Michael.

He is from the NSA, so the National Sheep Association.

And I just asked him for a few thoughts on, well, wolves, shearers, everything.

So we'll just play this.

There's wool all over, literally just

bits of stringy wool all over the place.

I probably should just do a quick plug for the National Sheep Association, actually.

They're NSA.

Police are now appealing with witnesses to come forward.

In other news, a survey carried out by the National Sheep Association has shown 65% of sheep farmers said they plan to vaccinate their flock against Bluetongue serotype 3 in 2027.

More than 1,400 farmers responded to the NSA survey, which found many farmers had struggled to obtain the vaccine during the season's outbreak.

40% of respondents stated they could not get hold of the vaccine despite trying which left them with unprotected sheep and resulted in additional stress at a time when the virus was spreading across England, Scotland and Wales When asked about ordering vaccine in advance through their vet 74% of farmers who responded to the survey said they were open to this approach NSA said this level of interest would equate to approximately 350,000 doses The survey was published at the time when many sheep farmers were buying flock replacements and 73% of respondents told the NSA that they would prefer to buy vaccinated sheep Phil Stocker, NSA chief executive, said the survey results highlight that early conversations are necessary between farmers, vets and vaccine manufacturers to ensure sufficient supply is available.