Farmers speak out over rejected £50,000 beef promotion plan

A group of farmers has spoken out after its £50,000 proposal to promote British beef was rejected by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).

Ladies in Beef asked for £25,000 to cover core publicity costs and £25,000 for a consumer campaign, called Save Our Sucklers, over the coming financial year.

But AHDB Beef & Lamb better said value for money could be obtained by supporting the campaign using in-house resources rather than paying for the work to be done externally.

Support would include communications, resource production and marketing, to help cut external spend by the group, said the AHDB Beef & Lamb board.

Ladies in Beef said it felt its application for the funding had been justified because it had a strong track record when it came to promoting beef.

See also: Ladies in Beef campaign to counter suckler herd decline

In a statement, after the proposal was rejected, Ladies in Beef said it had asked for the money having already achieved a notable return on investment on a very small budget.

“We are a group of 150 voluntary, like-minded female beef farmers, the majority of whom are AHDB levy-payers and Red Tractor assured”, it said.

During 2014 and 2015, Ladies in Beef had achieved coverage of more than 18 million viewers, listeners and readers though national and regional broadcast media.

This included coverage on BBC Countryfile as well as in the Sun and Daily Mail newspapers.

Ladies in Beef said Save our Sucklers aimed to raise industry awareness about the importance of suckler beef.

“We hope that after further consumer research in the spring, the AHDB Beef & Lamb board will look at product differentiation,” it said.

It added: “We strongly believe it is possible to promote the benefits of grass-fed, traditional suckler beef without product differentiation being detrimental to dairy beef.

“A premium image for suckler beef could have a positive halo effect on all beef, including dairy beef,” said the group.

AHDB Beef & Lamb chairman Adam Quinney said: “It was felt by the board that we could offer better value for money by supporting in-kind with expertise through our communications know-how rather than specifically allocating levy spend to the campaign.

“Our approach to this kind of request needs to be consistent and we have already changed the way we support the Mutton Renaissance campaign, for example, by bringing support in-house rather than using levy funds to pay an agency to do it.

“As with any other investment, the beef and lamb board must demonstrate return on this investment, while also being transparent about exactly where beef and lamb levy is being spent.

“We have a huge amount of talent in our organisation, offering a wide skillset across communications, technical and marketing.

“We believe it is through this we can add most value to Ladies in Beef.

“This might include activities such as communications support, help in producing resources and ensuring the group’s activity aligns with our current campaigns.”