Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help protect rare breeds of native farm animals.

To support native breeds, Defra publishes the UK National Breed Inventory annually to help monitor populations of pedigree livestock, including native breeds.  For breeders in England, support for native breeds is available under the SP8: Native Breeds at Risk Supplement, which can be accessed through the Countryside Stewardship scheme.

Defra has also published guidelines on contingency planning in the event of an outbreak of a notifiable disease to identify eligible native breeds on the breed at risk (BAR) list, that may be exempt from culling.

The Department recognises the important role local abattoirs play in supporting native breed farmers and the wider rural economy. We are very much committed to engaging with the smaller abattoir sector to maintain a robust and competitive industry. At the National Farmers Union Conference in February, I announced the Government’s intention to launch capital grant funding to support smaller abattoirs. I will shortly be holding a round table with experts from the native breeds community to explore how we can support this valuable resource.