The decision by the British Red Tractor Quality Assurance Scheme to progress with lifetime assurance has been met with a mixture of anger and disbelief within the local beef industry.

At present, cattle must be at least 90 days on a quality-assured farm before slaughter to obtain farm-assured status. The Farm Quality Assurance Scheme (FQAS) in NI, owned by the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC), meets the requirements of British Red Tractor and a significant volume of beef from NI is sold to Britain with a Red Tractor logo. If Red Tractor assurance brings in lifetime assurance, we will have little option but to comply in NI.

That would have significant implications for the industry here. Figures obtained from the LMC show that 99.6% of prime cattle and 94.9% of cows and bulls are farm quality-assured at slaughter. However, only around 55% would meet the lifetime requirement. To get this figure up towards 100% will require an estimated 10,000 additional farms in NI to gain FQAS status.