Martin Haworth, NFU director of policy, said the cuts ‘will be bloody’ with every single area of Defra spending ‘in the firing line’ as the Government attempts to slice around £1 billion off the department’s £3 billion budget over the next four years.

But he warned livestock farmers could be the biggest losers if Defra shifts too much of its annual animal health bill – currently £330 million – onto the sector.  

“A redistribution of the animal health budget has been coming for a while now and we certainly expect there will be an element of it in Government savings.

“But our big concern is that there will be an unsupportable burden passed onto livestock farmers. We simply can’t afford to pile charges onto the sector,” he warned.  

Another huge area of Defra spending is the flood defence budget – worth £722 million this year and due to climb to £765 million next year.

“Defra will find it difficult to defend the flood defence budget which is a great concern to us because farmers depend on it,” said Mr Haworth. He added he would be ‘very unhappy’ with cuts to the research and development budget.

Instead Mr Haworth said it was ‘possible’ for Defra to make the necessary cuts without impacting on the economic competitiveness of British agriculture.

“Defra’s savings should be made in staff cuts, efficiency savings and getting rid of certain quangos – but that won’t be enough,” he said, adding it would be ‘very hard’ to defend cuts in environmental programmes.