Little beef efficiency progress

SIR, – It was with a spark of optimism I saw the headline in The Scottish Farmer that NFUS was calling for changes to the BES.
“Not before time”, I thought. I probably should have known better. Of the eight recommendations the NFUS has put forward to ScotGov, not a single one will do a thing to improve the efficiency of any given beef herd. This is merely an exercise in administrative tidying.
 Once again we’re being encouraged into a headlong rush to grab any cash that’s going, with the NFUS campaigning to make the hoops easier to jump through. Not that the added income won’t be welcome but completely misses the bigger picture - we need a scheme that will genuinely encourage farmers to look for improvements in how they run their beef herds, not continue the reliance on outside support.
I will state again my belief that very little improvement will come from this scheme in its current form. We’ll get a few quid extra for each calf for 3 or maybe 5 years, taking measurements that tell us next to nothing, and then what? The scheme will end and the industry will be five years further down the line without making a single step of progress.
It’s disheartening to hear Allan Bowie describe some farmers as taking the view that “they perceive the obligations of the scheme to be greater than the financial reward being offered.”
 It’s disheartening because we’re at a point where farmers want financial inducements to improve. As an industry we should be always actively looking for improvements in efficiency.  
That’s where the financial rewards come from, not from schemes like the current BES.