The Common Agricultural Policy reform heralded a big change for farmers and crofters throughout Scotland. Businesses are becoming more and more reliant on price signals from the marketplace when it comes to making a viable living, but unfortunately these signals are currently lacking.

Other challenges facing the industry at the moment, such as rising farm input costs, particularly fuel, have also meant that many farmers and crofters are at a crossroads, deciding whether to continue and if they do, how they can sustain their businesses.

This crossroads has created a need for further information so that those in the industry can make informed choices when planning the future of their businesses. This need led NFU Scotland and the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) to launch a new initiative called 'Farming for the Future', which aims to assist producers in making business decisions.

The project is taking place in Orkney and was launched last week, thanks to funding from the European Social Fund.

Visiting experts from SAC, and also a local vet, took part in the workshop at Garson Farm, Sandwick, Stromness, presenting on the following issues within the overall topic of Bull Management:

Exporing the alternatives for housing and feeding - George Baikie, SAC Bull Health - Sandy Clarke Understanding EBVs - Gavin Hill, SAC Bull fertility under the microscope - Ian McCulloch

Speaking about the project, Stewart Wood, NFU Scotland Regional Board Chairman for Orkney & Shetland, said:

"Today has been a fantastic start to this project. Turnout was excellent and people obviously have great interest in the topics as they have been asking many questions. This is the first of many workshops and I hope that the project can expand and become long-term. At the end of the day, everybody is trying to make a profit and so any additional information on various topics will hopefully give us what we need to succeed."

Colin Davidson, a local producer who attended the workshop, said:

"I enjoyed the workshop and, in particular, found it very useful to learn more about how to use Estimated Breeding Value (EBV) figures when purchasing bulls. I feel sure that today's workshops will be of great benefit to everybody."

The next two workshops will focus on Cow Management and Feeding for the Marketplace and, together, all the workshops will deliver benefits to Orkney farmers, largely thanks to the fact that the topics chosen will be dictated by the attending farmers themselves.

The project looks set to go far along the road to achieving its aim of helping farmers and crofters to pay their own way and succeed in 'life after subsidy'.

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