Ed Green, a beef and arable farmer who farms 900 acres in Somerset, has moved to a custom feeding arrangement where he is paid a daily rate for rearing cattle.

He said:“We finish 1,117 cattle and we don’t own any of them. The processor/retailer that I work for supplies the feed and I apply a margin on top of my costs.”

It is similar to the type of arrangement operated by the poultry sector in Ireland and planned for the pig sector by Rosderra. Ed refused to divulge any financial details or even the name of the retailer, citing confidentiality.

Ed, who was a dairy farmer until 2004, maintains that it does not make sense to borrow money to try to make a margin on cattle. “The only way you can make money in the beef chain is if someone else is losing money,” he said.

He also believes that the majority of beef in Britain should come from the dairy herd, arguing that the beef carcase simply cannot afford the cost of carrying a suckler cow for a year. Ideally he would like everything to be an Angus steer: “they grade really well, they don’t cost as much to grow, it’s a branded product with a proven market, it’s in demand with consumers and retailers alike.” He joked that he had never seen “Belgian Blue steak on a restaurant menu”.