The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, rising cost of farming inputs, particularly fuel, and the lack of positive price signals from the marketplace have all culminated in an uncertain year for farmers and crofters in Orkney.  Individual businesses have been questioning their future direction and there has been a hunger for information with which to make informed choices about how to move forward.

In an attempt to assist producers, NFU Scotland and the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) joined forces earlier this year to provide a forum for delivering information.  'Farming for the Future' is a project that is aimed at delivering to Orkney farmers information on the topics that are of most interest to them when considering how best to develop their enterprises.

The second of the three planned workshops, which was on Cow Management, took place at Quanterness, St Ola, Orkney and looked at the following issues:

1. Innovative Selection Technique for Maternal Lines  - Robert McNee, Farmer
2. Condition Scoring/Cow Winter Nutritional Management  - Gavin Hill, SAC
3. Controlling Fertility & Calving Patterns    - Ian McCulloch, North Vet
4. Discussion of Housing Systems & Options   - George Baikie, SAC

The next workshop will focus on Finishing for the Marketplace and is planned for early February 2006.

The 'Farming for the Future' project has been made possible thanks to funding from the European Social Fund, made available through SAC's training budget and will deliver benefits to Orkney farmers at a critical time for the industry and region.

Stewart Wood, Regional Board Chairman for Orkney & Shetland, said:

"Beef production is central to Orkney agriculture and so the workshop today will prove to be extremely useful for those farmers who attended.

"As with the last workshop, turnout was superb and this time we had over 120 farmers.   This proves that Orcadians are keen to overcome problems associated with both their geography and the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and I am extremely glad that we are able to assist them by providing information that will help them to develop their businesses.

"Much of the information presented today will help beef producers to go back to the days before BSE when we were able to export much of our beef.

"The aim of the workshop was to highlight to producers how important it is to concentrate not on subsidies but on the marketplace and what consumers are looking for.  For that reason I am also very much looking forward to February's workshop which will take us another step along that journey."

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