AS MANY suckler cows as possible must be mated soon to avoid a severely reduced calf crop next spring, the National Beef Association has warned.

It wants MAFF to allow immediate movement of bulls under licence so that future home-killed beef supplies do not suffer even more as a result of foot-and-mouth.

"We are talking here of making sure that about 6,000 bulls currently standing on their own are put in with cows in May and June so that about 250,000 calves which would otherwise not be born can hit the ground from March 2002," said Mr Robert Forster, NBA chief executive.

"If this does not happen, domestic beef supplies in 2003 will be severely diminished and the knock-on impact throughout the slaughter and processing sector will be extremely damaging."

The NBA has asked MAFF to acknowledge that there are relatively few bull movements and they can be easily controlled, even within infected areas.

Some began to travel in the north of Scotland on Tuesday and a very limited number were being shifted in England and Wales to farms under the same ownership, under the longer distance movement scheme, said Mr Forster.

"But we have told MAFF that this is not enough to make sure thousands of suckler cows are not run empty this summer and that it must overcome its resistance to shifting non-slaughter stock to farms owned by different people," he said.

"The main theme of our argument is that the very small risk of spreading foot-and-mouth through bull movement must be measured against the damage that will be done to the industry if they are either forced to stand alone or are despatched for slaughter instead.

"Non-slaughter stock movement has been frozen since February 23 and, to avoid creating a pressure cooker situation which could come dangerously close to blowing its top, the Ministry must make sensible concessions on a risk balance basis."

l Frontline slaughterers are hoping to cut prime cattle prices by at least 5p per dwkg this weekend, the NBA warns.

It said there was a concerted effort to knock at least 2p a kilo off by the end of this week and to tighten the screws on Monday.

"Finishers across the breadth of Britain must resist, otherwise those in England will find themselves getting much less than 160p for a standard R4L steer and Scottish feeders may get no more than 166p-168p," said Mr For-ster.

"Some abattoirs are still happy to pay 172p for R4L animals in the North of England and up to 178p-180p in Scotland but even these companies could soon pay less.

"Those determined to push ex-farm cattle values even deeper into loss-making territory are being encouraged by the 100,000 head backlog of unslaughtered animals which built up in foot-and-mouth infected areas before they were opened up last week.

"If farmers show they are resolute, do not cave in, and concentrate on selling to slaughterers who offer the best prices, the damage should be minimised.