Animal health checks and traceability requirements now more rigorous Producers depressed by movement regime Confidence has taken yet another knock in the meat processing and livestock farming sectors. That's partly because the latest FMD outbreaks suggest the epidemic is nowhere near under control but also because of traders and producers deciding the government's promise of a less restrictive animal movement control regime in the coming autumn was ambiguous if not downright misleading. A statement by food and farming minister Lord Whitty on August 28 was initially welcomed as marking a significant policy shift, recognition of a need for easier movement of stock both to avoid animal welfare problems due to feed shortages and to allow processors access to the seasonally increasing supplies of finished cattle and sheep. However, as detailed reports of the revised controls circulated through the industry, sentiment deteriorated quickly. Although the altered rules will certainly allow some previously prohibited stock movement, animal health checks and traceability requirements have actually become more rigorous. The harshest criticism has come, predictably, from the militant National Beef Association, which claims the new movement system is "more restrictive than the one it replaces". But other producer and processor lobbyists are also expressing disappointment. Defra officials point out Lord Whitty tried to avoid inflating expectations. Although his statement claimed the revised rules would "apply to a much higher volume of movement, which will be allowed not just for welfare reasons....but for husbandry and commercial reasons and therefore some approach to trading will be allowable", it had also warned that "not all farmers who want to move sheep this autumn under these arrangements will in reality be able to do so". The likely net effect of the changes seems to be slightly easier stock procurement for processors than under the previous system, while leaving the meat industry's logistics still much more severely disrupted than had been hoped a few weeks ago. {{M/E MEAT }}