UK livestock farmers urged to use Red Meat Industry Forum
Livestock farmers are being urged to use the Red Meat Industry Forum service at to help them adapt to changes in subsidy payments. "It would be like walking past a ten pound note and not picking it up" - that's how one beef farmer describes failure to use a Red Meat Industry Forum (RMIF) service. The Forum’s aim is to help everybody involved in the red meat supply chain to adapt their businesses to all the inevitable challenges ahead, particularly post CAP reform and in the face of growing globalisation.
Changes to the Common Agricultural Policy mean that from 1 January subsidies are no longer linked to the number of animals produced. Livestock farms will instead receive a single payment in return for keeping land in good agricultural and environmental condition. Producers now must ensure their businesses remain profitable without relying on traditional subsidies to supplement their incomes and the RMIF business improvement clubs, where farmers can discuss experiences and devise cost improvements, are designed to help livestock producers to cope with these huge changes.
RMIF Chairman, Peter Barr is very optimistic about the future of the livestock industry. "British meat is a marketer's dream. Consumption is at its highest level for more than a decade.” However, figures show neighbouring farmers producing broadly the same type of cattle can show a large cost variation, of anything up to 30%. The challenge is to improve their business' sustainability under the changes, he adds.
The Red Meat Industry Forum was launched in 2001.
