Volume 12: Livestock Farming
3. Promotion and marketing of dairy and beef products
Meat and Livestock Commission

3.9 The MLC is a non-departmental public body, established under the Agriculture Act 1967, with its members appointed by the Minister of Agriculture. Its activities are confined to Great Britain and relate to cattle, sheep and pigs, and products derived from those animals other than milk and fleece wool. Schedule 1 of the Act sets out detailed functions of the Commission. Those relevant to livestock farming include:

1. promoting or undertaking arrangements for assessing the breeding qualitiesof livestock and the management of herds to which they belong on the basisof information derived from the keeping of records;
2. promoting or undertaking performance and progeny testing of livestock,and acquiring and maintaining establishments where such testing may becarried out;
3. promoting or undertaking provision of artificial insemination services;
4. maintaining and publishing registers of herds that appear to the Commission to be efficiently managed and conform to standards specified by the Commission;
5. promoting sires of a quality approved by the Commission for breeding purposes;
6. giving advice and information to livestock producers on commercial and technical aspects of introducing and developing cooperative arrangements for the production and marketing of livestock; and
7. advising on contracts for sale of livestock and meat.