§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what action she is taking to protect rare breeds of cattle and cattle biodiversity; what were the conclusions of the recent Cambridge conference on this matter; and what assessment expert advisers have made of the work being undertaken at the Bush estate outside Edinburgh.
§ Mr. JackI am aware of the scientific debate about diversity in cattle populations, and my Ministry is placing a research contract to establish the extent of genetic variation in rare and common breeds. The British cattle breeders conference at Cambridge in January 1994 heard a Food and Agriculture organisation paper about biodiversity in developing countries, a topic to which British scientists have made significant contributions. Research at the Bush estate funded by my Ministry includes work designed to enable genes for important characteristics from rare breeds to be located, facilitating their use in breeding programmes. Producers of rare breeds of cattle are of course, eligible for the same financial support provided to other beef producers under the suckler cow premium and beef special premium schemes.