Press Release - LFASS surplus funding should be targeted specifically at hill and upland cows - says NBA

LFASS surplus funding should be targeted specifically at hill and upland cows –says NBA.

The National Beef Association says more breeding cows will be kept in the Scottish hills and uplands if the approximate £8 million surplus created by the Scottish Government’s re-basing of LFASS spending last autumn is targeted specifically at suckler cows - and not just added, en-bloc, to existing payments as some organizations have suggested.

Making the case for more precise targeting of the multi-million pound funding windfall Neil McCorkindale, the Association’s representative on the Scottish Government’s LFASS Committee, explained that all sectors of the Scottish beef industry were perpetually worried about the persistent decline in suckler cow numbers.

But he was certain these concerns would be eased if more farmers were encouraged to hold onto their breeding stock through targeted LFASS payments aimed specifically at LFA holdings where cows were present.

“This is a one-off opportunity to direct a usefully heavy volume of funding at the suckler cow. The beef industry has debated long and hard on how best to help farmers keep more cows in the hills and the surplus created by re-basing provides one of the solutions,” he said.

“Other organisations on the LFASS committee support the NBA’s proposition - which would also encourage more hill ewes because sheep and cattle are best farmed together. Just as importantly environmentalists also like it because grazing cows are excellent tools for landscape management.”

“Support for cattle through existing land management contracts is thin and offers no real support for the breeding cow. However this failure can be re-addressed through carefully aimed spending of the new re-basing money.” 

“The NBA is also determined that this one-off new funding pool will be used exclusively within the livestock sector, from which the money was drawn, and not siphoned off to soften spending cut losses in other government departments.”

“In these circumstances it is fortunate that the Cabinet Secretary, Richard Lochead’s support for targeted spending on grazing cows, for both beef industry structure and landscape management reasons, is already on record,” Mr. McCorkindale added.

For more information contact:

Neil McCorkindale, NBA representative on Scotland’s LFASS committee.
Tel: 01852 316282