Quality Meat Scotland has welcomed the announcement that its assurance schemes fees are to be eligible for support under the Scottish Rural Development Programme.

Farmers in the QMS Cattle and Sheep and the QMS Pigs schemes will be able to claim support to cover 50 percent of the membership fees up to a maximum of £150 per scheme per year.

Scots shoppers are being told to look for the label at the launch of a new Specially Selected Pork campaign.

The spring campaign kicks off this week and includes brand new outdoor ads covering both billboards and smaller 6-sheet or bus-shelter formats, over a four week period as well as branded taxis in Glasgow and Edinburgh for the next year.

Both will still use the popular “get some pork on that fork” line, but also go further to get shoppers to look for the label and choose Specially Selected Pork.

New figures from Quality Meat Scotland, the Scottish red meat industry’s promotional and economic development body, show that calf registrations in Scotland fell by 2% last year to around 586,000.

Beef sired registrations increased year on year in the first quarter of 2008 indicating a marginal move from autumn to spring calving.