Abattoir provision and opportunities for mobile slaughterhouses in Scotland by the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission

Appendix I: EPIC Data

Report: Analysis of livestock movements to slaughter from Scottish farms

Date: 8 July 2024

Authors: Theo Pepler, Julie Stirling, Sibylle Mohr

Executive summary

During the period 2021-2023, per year approximately 420,000 cattle, 2 million sheep, and 530,000 pigs were sent to slaughter from Scottish livestock holdings. Of these totals, approximately 385,000 cattle (92%), 916,000 sheep (46%), and 231,000 pigs (44%) were slaughtered at Scottish abattoirs; the rest were slaughtered at abattoirs in England or Wales. Typical travel time to an abattoir was about 1 hour for abattoirs in Scotland (maximum 19-20 hours), 4-5 hours for abattoirs in England (maximum 8-24 hours), and 6-8 hours for abattoirs in Wales (maximum 8-23 hours).

Cattle experiencing journeys to slaughter lasting more than 8 hours tended to be from holdings in Argyll (5% of all cattle departing from Argyll), Bute (7%), Nairn (17%), Orkney (9%), or Shetland (28%). Sheep experiencing journeys to slaughter lasting more than 8 hours tended to be from holdings in Banff (62% of all sheep departing from Banff), Moray (56%), Orkney (74%), or Shetland (60%). In the three years 2021-2023, only 131 pigs had journeys to slaughter lasting more than 8 hours.

Slaughterhouses in Scotland that were more likely to receive animals travelling a journey longer than 8 hours were: Shetland Abattoir (cattle, pigs), ABP Food Group Perth (cattle), Sandyford (cattle, sheep), Turriff (sheep), Dornocktown (sheep), Wishaw (sheep, pigs).

On average, approximately 71% of cattle, 77% of sheep, and 71% of pigs departing from Scottish holding to slaughter did not go to the slaughterhouse nearest to their point of departure.

Table of content

Background

Approach

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Appendix: Considerations on the use of livestock movement data for movements ending at slaughterhouses

Background

This work was conducted in response to a query from the SAWC Slaughter & Mobile Abattoirs Working Group in Scottish Government to answer four questions about the journeys of livestock (cattle, sheep, and pigs) from Scottish holdings to abattoirs in Scotland, England, and Wales. The objective of this work is to identify geographical areas in Scotland from which cattle, sheep and pigs are likely to embark on journeys longer than 8 hours to reach places of slaughter

Approach:

EPIC analysed livestock movement data (cattle, sheep, and pigs) from ScotEID for the past three years—January 2021 to December 2023—to characterise journeys of livestock to slaughter in distance, duration and number of animals involved. For cattle, movement data over the three years considered were not available in ScotEID, as cattle movements were recorded consistently in ScotEID only from October 2021. This analysis is for all livestock movements originating from holdings in Scotland, where the slaughterhouse destinations were in Scotland, England, or Wales.

Movement records for cattle, sheep, and pigs are not recorded all in the same way in the ScotEID database. Please see the Appendix at the end of the report for more details on how each dataset was used in this analysis

Question 1

Number of animals and journeys, distance and duration (average and maximum) per annum, of animal journeys originating in Scotland broken down by major livestock species, destination (Scotland, England or Wales) and by final activity (market or slaughter). Data from the last three years. Please indicate where such journeys involve a sea leg.

The tables below provide data summaries describing livestock journeys originating in Scotland and ending at slaughterhouses in Scotland, England, and Wales from January 2021 to December 2023. We calculated:

• The number of journeys and animals moved
• The distance and duration (average and maximum) per annum, broken down by livestock species and country of destination

The table below shows number of cattle, sheep and pigs sent to slaughter from Scottish holdings, by year of movements and destination of the slaughterhouse. Note that the cattle movement data for the year 2021 in ScotEID is not complete.

*Note: The cattle data for year 2021 in ScotEID is not complete.

The following three tables show median and maximum distances and duration of journeys to slaughter for cattle, sheep and pigs from Scottish holdings, by year and destination of slaughterhouse.

Journeys involving a sea leg are indicated under Question 2.

Question 2

Are there certain geographical areas in Scotland from which livestock are more likely to embark on long (over 8-hour duration) journeys? If so, is this related to a particular species/type of animal?

Cattle

The following table shows that considerable proportions (≥ 5%) of cattle from the counties Argyll, Bute, Nairn, Orkney, and Shetland travelled for more than 8 hours to their slaughterhouse destination. The rows for these counties are highlighted in the table below.

Journeys from Shetland, Orkney, and the Western Isles would have involved sea legs, although this is not recorded in the ScotEID movement data.

Sheep

The distances and journey times to slaughter from each Scottish county were calculated as an average for the three years. The sheep movements are reported as batch movements and as individually identified animals. The number of movements (batches) that terminate at a Scottish slaughterhouse or which have a journey time of 8 hours or more is shown as a percentage of the total number of moves from a county. The percentage of these journeys that terminate at a slaughterhouse outside of Scotland is also shown.

NB. Counties that are potential origins of journeys that require a sea leg are highlighted by asterisks *

Table. The table shows number of batched movements; batch size; moves to slaughter in Scotland; journeys greater than 8 hours; and percent of journeys greater than 8 hours which terminate outside Scotland – from each departure country in Scotland.

• Most (95%) journeys longer than 8 hours have a destination outside Scotland.
• Journeys longer than 8 hours within Scotland are limited to movements departing from the Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles.
• Journeys from the Shetland, Orkney and Western Isles involve a sea leg. These moves make up 0.4%, 2.7% and 0.5%, respectively, of the total annual movements to slaughter from Scottish holdings. In addition, the islands of Argyll and Bute are the departure point for approximately 4% of the sheep movements from this region.
• Greater than half of all movements originating in Banff, Moray, Orkney and Shetland have journeys of greater than 8 hours.

Pigs

Across the three years, only 131 pigs in total (0.008%) had a journey of more than 8 hours. All of these journeys occurred within Scotland and involved a sea leg. The majority of these movements (85%) originated from Orkney, while the rest originated from Inverness.

Question 3

Are there particular slaughterhouses in Scotland for which animals arriving are more likely to have undertaken a long (over 8 hour) journey?

Cattle

The table below shows slaughterhouses in Scotland that received cattle during the period of analysis, indicating the number and percentages of cattle that had journey times exceeding 8 hours. Number of animals is the total number of cattle from Scottish holdings received at the slaughterhouse during the analysis period. Median duration is the median travel time of cattle arriving at the particular slaughterhouse.

The following abattoirs (highlighted in the table) received a relatively larger proportion of cattle that had journeys exceeding 8 hours in duration. Note that the Port Ellen, Quality Pork, and Shetland abattoirs received very few animals travelling more than 8 hours, despite their high percentages.

• 68/149/8005 – Port Ellen, Islay
• 67/084/8004 – Quality Pork Processors, Brechin
• 94/875/8011 – Shetland Abattoir
• 66/062/8004 – Scotbeef (Inverurie)
• 89/705/8500 – ABP Food Group, Perth
• 90/725/8004 – Sandyford, Renfrewshire

Sheep

Table. The table shows the percentage of annual moves longer than 8 hours to each Scottish slaughterhouse in Sanyford, Turriff, Dornocktown and Wishaw, relative to all slaughterhouse moves longer than 8 hours.

Pigs

As described in Question 3, very few pigs undertook a journey to slaughter exceeding 8 hours (0.008% across the study period). Below are the business names of those Scottish slaughterhouses that received at least one of those animals:

• Dingwall Abattoir (Munro's)
• Shetland Abattoir
• Shotts Abattoir
• Wishaw Abattoir
• Miller (Grantown on Spey)

Question 4

What proportion of livestock journeys originating in Scotland and terminating at a slaughterhouse in Scotland, England or Wales bypass a suitable alternative facility en-route? (i.e., what proportion of animals are not killed at their nearest abattoir?).

Cattle

The table below shows the proportion of cattle travelling to slaughter from each Scottish county bypassing the nearest slaughterhouse. These calculations considered only 44 slaughterhouses throughout Great Britain that received any cattle from Scottish holdings during the period of analysis. For each departure county, we calculated road travel routes from a random sample of 10 cattle holdings in the county to all 44 slaughterhouses and retained the minimum travel duration per holding. The journey duration to the nearest slaughterhouse was then estimated as the maximum of the retained travel durations across the 10 randomly sample holdings. Any cattle sent to slaughter, departing from the same county, with journey duration exceeding the estimated travel time to the nearest slaughterhouse for the county were then flagged as having bypassed the nearest slaughterhouse.

Sheep

The percentage of moves to slaughterhouse that by-pass the geographically closest slaughterhouse was averaged over the three-year period. The geographically closest slaughterhouse was defined as being within the same region as departure or within a 2.5-hour journey time.

Table. The table shows the annual moves bypassing the nearest slaughterhouse by percentage, from each of the departure counties in Scotland.

• Journeys to slaughter originating in Orkney, Bute, Wigtown, and Kirkcudbright have the highest percentage of movements that do not terminate at the closest slaughterhouse (> 90%). Orkney sends 40% of its sheep to slaughter in Clyde Valley and over 50% outside Scotland. Over 90% of movements to slaughter from Wigtown, and Kirkcudbright end at slaughterhouses in England and Wales.
• The largest percentage of moves that terminate at the nearest abattoir originate from the Western Isles and Ross and Cromarty (84% and 77%, respectively).

Pigs

The table below shows the proportion of pigs that do not terminate at the geographically closest slaughterhouse. To calculate the percentage of pigs / slaughter movements bypassing a suitable facility en route, movements were grouped by year and region and then averaged across the three-year study period:

• Bute, Berwick, Roxburgh, Moray, West Lothian, Wigtown have the highest percentage of movements that do not terminate at the closest slaughterhouse (>90%; see table above).
• The majority of movements from Berwick (69%) terminate in North Yorkshire (87% of all movements terminate in England).
• Pigs from Bute are typically slaughtered in Argyll and Lanark.
• Just over 51% of movements to slaughter from Roxburgh go outside of Scotland, with the majority of those terminating in North Yorkshire.
• 86% of movements from Moray go to Angus and just under 3% terminate in Moray.
• Over 90% of movements from West Lothian go to North Yorkshire.
• Over 93% of pigs from Wigtown are slaughtered in England, with the majority going to North Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.

Appendix. Considerations on the use of livestock movement data for movements ending at slaughterhouses

Cattle Movements

ScotEID cattle movement data (2021–2023) were used to describe the journeys of Scottish cattle to slaughter. Note that, as recording of cattle movement data in ScotEID started only in October 2021, not a full year of cattle data were available for 2021. In preparing the data, it was assumed that, for any individual animal, movement to slaughter included all movements between CPHs on the day of slaughter as well as the movements between CPHs on the day prior to the slaughter date. Travel distances and duration to slaughterhouses were calculated with Open Street Map routing, based on the travel time by car. There were a number of slaughterhouses in the ScotEID locations data that had 4-digit CPH numbers and no geolocation coordinates; any movement records involving these slaughterhouses could not be used in the analysis.

Sheep Movements

ScotEID sheep movement data (both batched data and individually identified sheep) (2021–2023) were used to describe the journeys of Scottish sheep to slaughter. The annual numbers of sheep and the number of movements (batches) to slaughter were counted and the distance between farm and slaughterhouse and the predicted journey time were calculated. An annual average of 70% of sheep slaughter moves pass through a market. Duplicate movements where the move was recorded at both a market and a slaughterhouse were removed from the analysis. Where the animal had moved more than once in the previous 7 days, these moves were examined to determine whether they could be considered part of the slaughter move e.g. the animals last move could be recorded as moving from a market to a slaughterhouse, however the previous move could be the farm to market move which identifies the holding of origin.

Pig Movements

ScotEID pig movement data (2021–2023) were used to describe the journeys of Scottish pigs to slaughter. Pig movements are recorded as batch movements rather than individual movements and therefore do not allow for reconstruction of journeys of individual animals across multiple steps. For this reason, the analysis presented here focused on batched movements and the last movement to slaughter. To identify movements and distances to slaughter, movement records were joined to locations data provided by ScotEID. Slaughterhouses and geolocation were identified by joining the data to ScotEID locations data, production units information, and a list of known slaughterhouses in GB. Each ScotEID pig movement record contains the departure CPH and the destination CPH and an intermediate ‘read’ location CPH (which is either identical to the destination or departure CPH, or an intermediate market location). The movement data analysed here did not contain intermediate market locations, i.e. all movements appeared to be movements direct to slaughter.