THE NATIONAL Beef Association has warned that introducing area-based payments will put many environmentally important upland farms at risk.

Robert Forster, chief executive, said many might give up suckler cows in favour of one-man flocks of sheep, which no-one would want.

Defra's eight-year switch would see the support income of many specialist beef finishers fall 40-50pc by 2013.

Suckled calf breeders on up to 4,000 farms on the fringes of the SDA would see their support payments fall 55-75pc, as the special SDA-based payment had flat rate support levels 60pc below non-SDA land.

"This is why we have asked the European Commission if it can put pressure on Defra to modify its decision," said Mr Forster. "We believe Defra's plans will shatter the legitimate expectations of businesses built up over the past 30 years and create anti-competitive distortions within the UK, where the English beef sector faces a location penalty of at least the equivalent of 20-25p per dwkg compared with Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales."

Defra had confirmed that the overall subsidy redistribution in England was just 13pc. The NBA believes the beef sector could gain some relief by pushing through better targeted single farm payment re-allocations elsewhere.

If nothing is done, it says, those farmers will simply not have the operating capital to fund changes based on the new market and increased environmental care.

The NBA wants to see the analysis Defra used used to create the lower-paid SDA region. The survival of those, mainly family-run, environmentally important farms was at stake.

Defra said they should adapt to decoupling by raising the quality of their production and reducing the quantity.

"However, as far as we can see, the great majority qualify for maximum extensification payment rates because they carry fewer than 1.4 livestock units per hectare," said Mr Forster.

The only possible result of 55-75pc reductions in support would be the almost total removal of 185,000 suckler cows within three years and their replacement with one-man flocks of sheep, which neither the sheep industry nor the environmentalists wanted .

"It may be that Defra has not properly appreciated this. If we can see the analysis it used before it made its decision, we will be better able to understand the reason for it," said Mr Forster.