Sheep And Cattle

Mr. Macdonald
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the total amount of support payments paid out in the Highlands and Islands development board area in the most recent year for which there are figures, in respect of (a) sheep and (b) cattle.

Mr. Michael Forsyth
Expenditure on relevant agricultural schemes within the Highlands and Islands development board area is as follows.-----------------------------------------
|                                       |
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|Hill livestock compensatory allowances1|
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|Sheep annual premium1                  |
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|Suckler cow premium1                   |
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|Beef special premium2                  |
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The Highlands and Islands development board itself provides some assistance to the livestock sector: in 1989–90 this amounted to £2,212,000.The sheep and cattle sectors also benefit from intervention market support and the sheep variable premium. It is not possible to disaggregate this support to specific areas.