Cash aid for native breeds of cattle.

GOVERNMENT cash is being awarded to help bring arable farmers together and to boost Britain's native breeds of cattle breeds.

This emerged when DEFRA Food and Farming Minister Lord Whitty announced the latest Agricultural Development Scheme grants aimed at delivering key aims of the government's Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food.

The first successful bidder was the White Knight project led by Farmcare,part of the Co-Operative Group, and United Farmers, to initially bring together farmers representing 15 per cent of the cereals acreage.

Other large farmers and cooperatives will be encouraged to join the project that aims to change the way in which farm trading is carried out by working directly with retailers,processors and suppliers in the agricultural and horticultural supply chains.

The objective is to remove unnecessary supply chain costs and ensure that farmers work more closely with customers.

The second successful bid was from UK Sire Services, based in Devon, to establish an independent semen storage facility available to all cattle breeds and breeders, and to link this to ways of improving semen distribution.

The project will not only benefit specialist cattle breeders and the export business for semen of native commercial livestock breeds,but is seen as being of national importance for the conservation,management and enhanced use of the UK's native animal genetic resources.

Lord Whitty said both projects have potential major benefits -one strengthening the farmers' position in the supply chain and the other intended to create a new centre of national importance for the native cattle breeds.

``These grants are supporting projects that are part of an overall effort to make farmers more competitive and able to make the most of the markets open to them,''he added.