16 January, 2007

NEW shipping containers for transporting livestock are to be tested in the northern isles next month.

Ferry operator NorthLink expects to receive three prototypes of the livestock containers from a Chinese manufacturing plant, early in February, for trial on its freight vessels Hascosay and Clare.

Industry experts, farmers, buyers and the appropriate health and welfare authorities will all be consulted on the new containers.

Once the trials and consultation are complete, the designs will be modified before a contract is signed to manufacture more than 100 containers for sheep and cattle.

Commercial director Gareth Crichton said: "We're looking forward to receiving the prototypes in the next few weeks and are very encouraged by photos showing one of the containers before they left China.

"The shipping of the prototypes is a significant milestone in the process of introducing a new system for shipping livestock from the northern isles. The next stage is for us to test the system's suitability in practice. This is crucially important.

"During this testing period we will also seek the views of those involved in the livestock industry from farmers themselves to the appropriate regulatory bodies."