Red Tractor Assurance (RTA), the UK Quality Assurance Scheme, is shortly due to outline its response to the consultation it held earlier this year. It would require cattle to be Quality Assured for their entire life as opposed to the last 90 days, as is the case at present.

The consultation closed in late March. At the time, RTA announced that it was going to “appoint an independent person to review the consultation responses submitted to ensure an unbiased and balanced view. Once that process is complete, the relevant RTA sector board and Red Tractor board will consider the outcome of the consultation and take time to reflect and discuss it. Only then will any next steps be formally announced. This is unlikely to be before August 2015.”

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that the Livestock and Meat Commission, which administers the Farm Quality Assurance scheme in Northern Ireland, will meet RTA this week to get an update.

As we enter August, British and Northern Ireland farmers wait anxiously to see what the next steps will be.

RTA is a not-for-profit organisation owned by the National Farmers Union, National Farmers Union Scotland, Ulster Farmers’ Union, Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, Dairy UK, British Retail Consortium and the Food and Drink Federation. It appoints an Assured Food Standards Board, made up of representatives of farming, levy bodies, food processors, retailers and independent members with animal health and welfare, environment and consumer interests.

RTA is the UK’s leading farm assurance scheme and sets the standard that other schemes in Scotland, NI and Wales must adhere to in order to use the Red Tractor logo. In the consultation, there was widespread opposition to a move to lifetime assurance from numerous farmer representative bodies and many in the processing sector. There is a general agreement that lifetime assurance is a worthy concept, but the difficulty centres on how to get small producers to join. They are essential to achieving critical mass of eligible beef. Lamb has been excluded from the consultation process.

In Ireland, the Bord Bia Quality Assurance requires cattle to be on a Quality Assured farm for the 70 days before slaughter compared with 90 days in the Red Tractor schemes. Lifetime assurance hasn’t been an issue in the Bord Bia scheme, but in the event that the UK were to, it is likely that this position would have to be reviewed. However, given the level of opposition in response to the consultation, it is difficult to see how this matter will progress at speed.

IFA National Livestock Committee chair Henry Burns said the concept of lifetime assurance is not practical in the majority of family farm situations. In addition, he said it will add nothing extra to the product or deliver anything extra from the market in terms of reassuring the consumer about the quality and providence of beef.