The UK National Beef Association (NBA) has outlined some fairly radical, and potentially controversial suggestions, aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of UK beef production, while at the same time squeezing out imports, especially from far afield.

The proposals include a new definition of ‘prime beef’ which would include animals that have lifetime farm assurance status, and are between 10 and 28 months old.

The NBA point out that of the 1.51m cattle slaughtered in Britain in 2019 aged between 10 and 30 months, 160,000 were over 28 months old. Killing these cattle earlier would save 55,956t of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year. However, the NBA suggest that by 2025, the target should be lowered to 27 months, which would save an additional 24,852t of CO2.

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With these carbon savings, it would allow the UK to expand its beef industry by 34,300 suckler cows, with no net increase in emissions.

That would have the additional benefit of displacing beef imports to the UK (the UK is around 75% self-sufficient in beef), and it is here where really significant carbon savings can be made.

The NBA points out that a lot of the negative press that the beef industry receives around emissions, is actually because of the high carbon footprint of imports.

If the UK produces an extra 10,508t of beef, it could potentially displace 399 lorry loads of imported product.

In its calculations, the NBA assumes that these imports are split equally between the Republic of Ireland, Poland and Botswana. Of these, Botswana carries the highest footprint of 1.5mt of CO2, with Poland at 226,765t and ROI beef at 56,620t.

To encourage UK farmers to kill cattle earlier, the NBA suggest that an environmental tax of around £100 per head should be levied on cattle slaughtered over 28 months of age, with some exceptions for the likes of native breeds grazing land for conservation purposes.