To the UK’s processors and retailers,

This is a line‑in‑the‑sand moment for the British beef sector. Farmgate prices have fallen again, and the impact on producers is immediate and painful. Every drop in price chips away at confidence, erodes the national herd, and pushes more family farms to question whether they can keep going. We are running out of road.

Let me be blunt: without meaningful commitment from the rest of the supply chain, you will lose us. And once those cows are gone, once those herds are dispersed, they do not return quickly, if they return at all.

Producers have carried the risk for too long. We have absorbed soaring input costs, extreme volatility, and constant pressure to deliver more for less. We have kept cattle on farms, kept beef on shelves, and kept the supply chain moving through some of the most turbulent years in living memory, but we cannot continue to do this alone.

What we need now is not sympathy, we need support, real, practical, commercial support.

We need stable, transparent pricing that reflects the true cost of production. We need procurement strategies that look beyond the next fortnight. We need processors and retailers to recognise that a sustainable supply chain cannot be built on the backs of farmers taking all the risk while everyone else protects their margins.

If the national herd continues to shrink, the consequences will be felt by every part of the chain. Less British beef means tighter supply, higher prices, more imports, and a weaker domestic food system. That is not in your interest, our interest, or the public’s interest.

British consumers want British beef. They trust it, they value it and expect it to be there. But it will only be there if the people who produce it can survive the next twelve months, not just the next twelve days.

So this is our message: stand with us now or lose us later. Commit to stability or accept the consequences of instability. Work with us to rebuild confidence or watch the herd decline further.

The strength of our national beef sector depends on shared responsibility. Producers have carried their part. We now ask processors and retailers to carry theirs, not tomorrow, but today.

Yours sincerely,
Neil Shand

Chief Executive Officer
National Beef Association