BEEF producers could be sold down the river if the Scottish Beef Calf Scheme (SBCS) suffers any top-slicing of the single farm payment, says the Scottish Beef Cattle Association.
The SBCS was introduced when the most recent reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy became effective on 1 January 2005.
There are two rates of payment: £78.82 on the first ten calves and then £76.82 on all other calves with no headage limit.
However, the scheme has a budget capped at £20 million so the rates can vary from year to year, depending on the number of applicants.
The basic idea is to encourage farmers and crofters to maintain herds of suckler cows. At present the SBCS is funded by top-slicing 10 per cent all elements of the single farm payment (SFP) associated with beef production. The scheme is not universally popular with all producers, especially specialist finishers of prime cattle, but it is considered a success.
New proposals in the consultation paper on the future of the CAP in Scotland suggest that 10 per cent the total SFP – somewhere in the region of £450 million – should be top-sliced, with no constraints on where the funds are subsequently directed and that this might put at risk the current £20m of aid for specialist beef breeding units.
John Bell, technical director of the SBCA, said: "In a perfect world we would need no support, but if we are to retain our Scottish beef industry, and indeed the contribution it makes to the economy, then we have to accept that some redistribution of funds is necessary.
"The emphasis of support needs to move from arable cropping to beef and sheep farming and specifically to active farmers. Hill and upland farmers are the essential source of 58 per cent of our beef but are dependent on specialist lowland finishers to produce the other 42 per cent."
Bell added: "This does not mean that the SBCS is a failure – quite the contrary. It simply means that the exodus from suckler cows would have been bigger and quicker if the scheme had not been in place.
"The rationale of giving support to the production unit – the calf rather than the cow – is a huge step forward from the pre-decoupling days when cows were kept for subsidy, sometimes regardless of whether they reared a calf."
The full article contains 399 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
