Vol. 495 No. 5
114 Mr. Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food his views on the quality of hill sheep in the west; the total number involved; the markets which exist for this produce; his views on research to improve the quality of the breed; the proposals, if any, he has in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20714/98]
There are approximately 1.6 million mountain ewes in the counties along the western seaboard. The lambs produced by these ewes are small and light and normally require to be finished on lowland pastures to reach a marketable quality. In past years, such light mountain lambs have found a ready market in the Mediterranean countries of Italy, Portugal and Spain. However, this year, there is considerably less demand than in previous years because of increased internal supplies in the Spanish market. An Bord Bia has launched a publicity campaign this autumn to raise the profile of mountain lamb on the home market and a promotional drive has focused on the retail sector of some overseas markets.
Over the years, research has been conducted by Teagasc into ways of further feeding lambs and identifying the strains of black face sheep most suitable for breeding. There is a project currently in train at the Teagasc hill sheep farm at Linnane which compares the Newton-Stewart type blackface with native blackface sheep. The project is coming into its third year. To date the results from the Newton-Stewart breed are very promising.
