Government must realise that a category card based compensation system for stock that has fallen victim to a notifiable disease will prove unworkable as well as provoke avoidable longstanding conflict between itself and the cattle industry, the National Beef Association has warned.

It says that even at this late stage ARAD, Defra and SEERAD, should each accept that the owners of animals that are compulsorily removed under government disease legislation must receive fair value for them.

And return instead to a carefully monitored compensation system based on individual value that is fair to both farmer and government because each valuation can be monitored and excesses quickly spotted.

"A category based system is a primitive instrument because it will turn disease compensation for both commercial and pedigree cattle into a lottery with half the animals removed being undervalued and the other half overvalued simply as a result of either their breed, their age, or the fact there is not an adequate slot for them," explained NBA chairman, Robert Robinson.

"Furthermore if government insists in pushing through its plans against overwhelming industry objections the system will be unable to highlight the contrast in value between dairy bred and suckler bred beef animals, or to distinguish between animals bred from higher value or lower value breeds."

And the Association is amazed that government is prepared to insist on just one compensation category for certificated pedigree bulls.

"Any valuation system that fails to distinguish between immature males that have yet to prove themselves as breeders, proven bulls with much of their working lives still in front of them, and a worn out bull close to the end of his breeding days is seriously flawed and inadequate," said Mr Robinson.

"Nor is there any accommodation for the wide variations in value, for both male and female, which exist between breed - which again confirms the naivety, and inflexibility, of the government's intentions."

In view if this, and in an effort to avoid the destruction of the partnership it would like to build between farmers and itself on animal health issues the NBA would like government to give up on the category based system it is determined to push through and re-examine the construction of an improved system for individual valuation instead.

"We maintain it should not be alarmed if it uses a vetted list of approved valuers, imposes strict protocols on the conduct of all valuations, introduces a universally applied central monitoring system and installs a disciplinary mechanism for valuers whose work consistently falls outside recognised tolerances," added Mr Robinson.

"These, and other individual valuation safeguards, should protect both it and farmers from the inevitably unwelcome consequences of the category based system it appears ready to force on the industry even though few, if any, of the results will be positive."