beef

Policy reversal part of emergency aid package Brown keeps calf cull scheme Mike Ingham Floods of cheap manufacturing beef as waste product' from the dairy industry appear less likely following a U-turn by Agriculture Minister Nick Brown over the controversial Calf Processing Aid Scheme. Having announced several weeks ago he would let the programme lapse at the end of this month, Brown now intends to continue subsidising the slaughter of calves. This policy reversal, part of the long rumoured £120m emergency aid package for agriculture detailed in the Commons on Monday, scuppers at least some meat companies' plans for fast finishing very low quality and otherwise almost worthless animals through feedlots and using the carcases as broiler beef'' for products such as ready meals. The CPAS was introduced during the BSE crisis mainly to absorb the half million calves which would have been shipped annually to Continental veal units but were left without a market when Brussels banned British beef and cattle exports. Critics say it distorts the market, destroying or overpricing good calves and thus threatening an eventual shortage of home produced beef. Defenders claim the low grade animals have no place in the market and will end up culled and buried on farms, creating a public health hazard, unless their disposal is subsidised. Brown's solution is a compromise, a lower aid rate ensuring poor quality dairy calves yield a little revenue to milk producers while the better stock settle at a price level where beef finishers can afford them as raw material. The net effect will presumably be a slightly tighter beef market from late next year than if the scheme had been abandoned. {{MEAT }}