Quality outlook gloomy under Agenda 2000?
Quality outlook gloomy under Agenda 2000?
AGENDA 2000 fails to encourage quality beef production and many are likely to opt out of collecting extensification premium, because they will be a nightmare to claim.
Those were the predictions of MLC economist Lesley Green, speaking at the Winter Fair. On suckler cow premium (SCP), she feared that low age limits for claiming premium on heifers would hit herds productivity.
"Up to 20% of SCP claims can be on heifers, providing they are over eight months old. This means two SCP claims could be made on a heifer before she was slaughtered, never producing a calf. This could lower herds productivity, compromising the UKs ability to produce quality beef: A higher age limit for heifers would have helped."
Mrs Green also foresees difficulties with replacing cows leaving herds when the 20% heifer limit is reached. "Where producers are up to the 20% limit for heifers, if they lose a cow it must be replaced with another cow and not a heifer, which could be difficult."
Turning to slaughter premium, she was disappointed that there was no quality criteria for payments, another disincentive to quality beef production. She also expected slaughter premium claims on veal calves to be vastly oversubscribed.
"Calf slaughter premium is aimed at true veal producers. But the ending of CPAS means there is a danger that the 26,300 ceiling could be exceeded by claims on non-veal calves being slaughtered, scaling back payments drastically."
But there was likely to be less of a rush to claim extensification premiums, said Mrs Green. "On units where cattle are moving frequently, keeping track of numbers and ages of cattle on the unit will be an administrative nightmare."