Media contributions
1Media contributions
Title Getting crofters involved Degree of recognition Regional Media name/outlet Stornoway Gazette Media type Print Country/Territory United Kingdom Date 3/06/21 Description My team at SRUC’s Kirkton & Auchtertyre farms, near Crianlarich, conduct research with a wide range of partners. One example is TechCare, a new four year EU funded project to assess how innovative technologies can be used to identify animal welfare issues in sheep and goat systems. Our focus is on extensive and semi-extensive meat sheep systems here in the UK and – because of differences in farmer availability due to timings of lambing across the country – the priorities are being identified across two workshops. For example, malnutrition and undernutrition can occur in individual ewes at any time, but is likely to be more common through the winter or when we get a late spring such as we’re seeing this year. The associated poor health of the ewe can then also impact directly on her lamb. And of course, predation of lambs – particularly but not exclusively in the spring - is a growing issue across many of the crofting counties. Once the five top priorities have been identified , existing or new Precision Livestock Farming technologies will be identified. These technologies will then be assessed not only to see which may provide early warning of welfare issues developing but also whether it is practical or cost-effective to do so. Although we have been working with crofters in other projects, we are conscious that in TechCare crofting is under-represented. And so if any crofters are interested in knowing more or becoming involved in this project then please do not hesitate to reach out. Persons Davy McCracken