How beef cattle are protecting the environment

QUITE apart from the beef they produce, the five million or so beef cattle in the United Kingdom provide "hugely undervalued public benefits", according to Kim Heywood, director of the National Beef Association.

Speaking yesterday, she pointed to the contribution beef cattle make to the preservation of "our treasured rural landscape and the maintenance of countless, complex, eco-systems which protect the survival of a large number of our most precious, birds, small mammals, butterflies and plants".

She added: "If the number of grazing beef cattle decline further there would, almost immediately, be a further invasion by scrub plants and thorn on to the previously well-managed pastureland that creates one of the most dominant features of our multicoloured, patchwork, countryside.".

The landscape would quickly become more and more overgrown and neglected and the fragile environments would be overwhelmed by invasive plants.

These, she warned, would shut out light that was essential for the continued presence of countless pasture-dependent species.

"It is no accident that specialist organisations like the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and similar groups that value wild flowers and precious insects, appreciate that, without the assistance of cattle, which graze down rough and invasive plant species, their task would be much more difficult."

When asked to put a value on the environmental benefits, she quoted a figure of 900 million in the National Park areas of England alone being generated by tourists attracted by landscapes created by the mixed grazing of beef cattle and sheep.

"The Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs also estimates that, again in local economy revenue terms in England, the biodiversity created by mixed cattle and sheep grazing should be valued at more than 1.3 billion a year - and if Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales were included the overall benefit would be even greater.

"On top of this, the value created by animals that also protect rare birds, butterflies and flowers is almost incalculable in heritage protection terms."

These less tangible benefits came on top of the more recognised output from the sector - a regular, supply of high quality, environmentally efficient, and nutritious beef for the national dinner plate.

Haywood wanted an increase, not a decrease in national herd size as this would assist in the solving of a number of urgent national problems.

"One is that the UK's food security, which is coming under increased pressure, is being reinforced by the production of almost 800,000 tonnes of domestically produced, high protein, high trace element content, and high quality beef each year," she said.

"This would secure an important contribution to a balanced diet at a time when the volume of beef being traded internationally is shrinking as a result of rising population pressure and a substantial lift in global demand."