LEADERS of Britain's beef cattle industry won their battle for separate representation under the umbrella of the National Cattle Association (NCA) at an extraordinary meeting yesterday.
The spotlight will fall on how far the industry is prepared to finance a major lobbying and
promotional effort for the sector.
A more detailed announcement of the plans for this subsidiary - which may be called the National Beef Association - is expected to be made at Beef '98 in Fife on
Friday.
There was an overwhelming majority in favour of retaining the NCA umbrella, but a much
narrower majority for setting up
subsidiary companies to deal
separately with the affairs of the beef and dairy sectors.
Commenting after the meeting NCA chairman Billy Kilpatrick, who farms at Craigie Mains,
Kilmarnock, was pleased the overall organisation had been retained.
''I think it would have been a serious blow to the cattle industry if it had disappeared. We provided a single voice in discussions with the Government.''
But he was less than enthusiastic about the formation of sectoral subsidiaries and said the dairy
sector in particular would have to take stock.
''It should be remembered that about 50% of the beef in this country still comes from the dairy herd,'' he added. In contrast, beef cattle representatives such as David Benson, chief executive of the British Charolais Cattle
Society, and Roger Trewhella of the Simmentals were much more optimistic.
''We feel the beef sector has to become much more focused in terms of representation and promotion and that will need much more support from beef farmers,'' said Benson. ''But there are lots of common issues to be tackled and I don't see the need for us to fall out with the dairy sector.''
Trewhella said the vote had produced little surprise. ''The result should enable positive development for the whole cattle industry with a much clearer focus,'' he claimed. ''The Scottish Beef Council has provided a tremendous example of what can be achieved and I would hope this could be repeated over the whole industry.''
The focus for the dairy sector is less clear, although facilities at the Holstein Friesian Society's headquarters - where the NCA secretariat is based - are capable of handling much more, even assuming the HFS amalgamation with the British Holstein Society goes through.
But it may be that the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers will attract some defectors, particularly as it has raised its political profile recently with the appointment of Ex-Adas dairy specialist John Sumner as policy adviser. This association is due to post a surplus of #34,000 at its annual meeting tomorrow.
John Cameron, chairman of the Scottish Beef Council, who will be hosting the Beef '98 event at his farm at Balbuthie in Fife on Friday hoped the new development would stimulate further membership and enhance the influence of the beef lobby. Individual producers were the essence of any specialist organisation, he said, and the beef council already had more than 500 members in Scotland alone.
The decision by the Secretary of State for Scotland, Donald Dewar, to perform the official opening of Beef '98 was indicative of the importance attached to the beef sector in Scotland.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article