South West livestock farmers are calling on Defra and farming minister George Eustice to abandon proposed changes to the way money they pay for the promotion of English beef and lamb is distributed.

Currently livestock farmers and abattoirs pay a compulsory levy to industry body Eblex for every beef or sheep animal that is slaughtered in England. This money – about £15.5m a year – is used to promote the beef and lamb quality standard marks, support initiatives like the West Country Beef and Lamb protected geographical indicator (PGI), boost export markets and train farmers to help the industry become more efficient.

But pressure is growing for some of this funding to be passed to the equivalent ‘levy bodies’ in Scotland and Wales. Exactly how much money this would involve is uncertain, but Scotland is known to be asking for about £1.5m.

The NFU’s regional livestock board chairman, Dorset farmer Andy Foot, believes farmers will be unhappy at the prospect of levy money paid by English farmers effectively being used to promote the PGIs of their Scotch and Welsh competitors.

“In terms of direct subsidies the Scottish and Welsh Governments already give more support to agriculture than Defra does, so English farmers would be even more disadvantaged than they are now,” he said.

“Eblex will have less money to spend and would be faced with having to raise the levy to maintain its current activity levels, so to add insult to injury we’d then be paying a higher rate than farmers in Scotland and Wales.”