Red Meat Producers' Preferences for Strategies to Cope with the CAP Reform in Scotland

“Beef marketing. It is not possible to keep a suckler cow for a year for the value of 0.9 of a suckled calf with employed labour and paying any rent. The retailers will import 3rd world beef if price goes to economic levels. Therefore the beef production business will steadily melt away to a much smaller national herd. At present time it is best to take the SFP [single farm payment], reduce production and wait and see what happens. We have to try, where practicable, to market direct to our customers and exclude the big retailers. This is difficult, but we’re easing into it”