The Scottish Government this afternoon announced the setting up of a Review Group to examine the specific future of the Bull Hire scheme. In the meantime the current scheme is to be extended for a year, giving the Review Group time to come to conclusions without prejudice to the health and development of crofters’ livestock.

Thanking Environment Minister, Michael Russell, for listening to the views of a wide range of MSPs on the matter, Highlands and Islands MSP, Jamie McGrigor, who led a Member’s Debate in the Parliament last month on the subject and last week held cross-party talks with Minister, said: ‘I am grateful to the Minister for listening to myself and other MSPs at our meeting last Thursday. While I am appreciative that he understands the importance of a bull hire scheme in terms of cattle health and quality, I am personally yet to be convinced that any of the successor options that have been suggested will be as good as the very valuable scheme we currently have.

‘Sadly, we lost the ram hire scheme a few years back and my concern is to prevent the loss of any scheme that maintains the quality of stock in my region of the Highlands & Islands.

‘While the option of purchase of a bull might seem attractive to some crofters on face value it provides no long term solution in terms of how good quality bulls will be provided to future generations in the crofting sector.

‘I wish the review group every success in its deliberations and look forward to seeing the details of those who will be appointed to it. I hope they will be able to come up with some practical solutions and will be able to look into some of the genuine concerns that exist about the loss of the bull hire scheme. Many crofters remain unconvinced by claims about the level of investment that might be needed at the stud farms in Inverness if the current scheme was to continue and I hope this matter can be investigated by the review group’.

Also commenting on the development, Highlands and Islands MSP, Rhoda Grant, Labour’s Rural Affairs Spokesperson, urged Argyll and Bute crofters to use the scheme. She said: ‘The Scottish Government was able to use the declining use of the scheme over recent years as a reason for proposing its demise. It was mistaken to do that. Iit needs to market the scheme more vigorously and effectively and crofters need to use it if it is to remain into the long term.

‘The health benefits of the scheme cannot be overstated. Crofters can obtain better markets and prices for their cattle if they use the health guaranteed scheme. I hope crofters in Argyll and the islands will look to do so’.

Having urged crofters to stand shoulder to shoulder on the issue, she concluded by thanking them for backing the campaign to keep the scheme going. She said: ‘The strong demonstration of concern from the crofting community allowed us to mount the arguments with confidence and it allowed the government to see just what opposition they have managed to create. Crofters standing together are powerful and the other battles we need to have about the future of crofting will benefit from that continuing solidarity on the key issues’.