At least a quarter of the English suckler herd are at risk in SDAs, warns the National Beef Association.
England will lose almost all of the 175,0000-195,000 suckler cows running in its Severely Disadvantaged Areas (SDAs) unless Defra can restore the support losses that will be inflicted on fringe SDA farms by its area based CAP reform package, the National Beef Association has warned.
It says that between 3,500 and 4,000 farms on the edges of the English SDAs will lose 55-75pc of their current support payments because they are on the wrong side of the outdated SDA line.
Hardest hit will be vast tracts of the Cheviot foothills, North Pennines, Peak District, and sections of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, farms on the slopes of Exmoor and Dartmoor in the West Country and pockets of land on the Herefordshire and Shropshire borders with Wales.
"We are talking about severe economic and environmental damage in these regions unless Defra acknowledges it has made a grave mistake and can restore the payment levels for this type of holding," explained Association chief executive, Robert Forster.
According to the NBA almost every farm on the SDA fringes currently receives between £250-£400 per hectare in support payments but faces a wind down to just £75 per hectare within eight years compared with around £220 per hectare for farms in the non-SDA payment zone.
"These holdings carry about 25pc-28pc of England's 696,000 suckler cows and it will be impossible to keep them unless the huge reduction in their Single Farm payment (SFP) is changed," said Mr Forster.
"If it is not, their only way out is to cut back on labour and concentrate on a one-man flock of sheep.
"Environmentalists are already shivering at the thought because they know just how much mixed cattle and sheep grazing has encouraged indispensable habitat variation for important insects, birds and mammals."
The NBA finds it hard to understand the contradiction between Defra's long standing recognition of the environmental contribution made by beef cows and the inevitable results of its decision to use the archaic SDA line, which was introduced in 1975, as the demarcation between its flat rate payment zones.
It has asked for an urgent meeting with Defra Secretary of State, Margaret Beckett, and written to the European Commission pointing out the uncompetitive position forced on fringe SDA farms by the re-distribution of such a high proportion of their historic entitlement.
"We are hoping a solution can be found," said Mr Forster. "We are told that on Exmoor alone the future of 600 mixed livestock farms is threatened and the Exmoor National Park could lose up to £4.8 million a year in SFP revenue if support for these holdings falls to just £75 per hectare
"This economic destruction is replicated right across the North of England as well as parts of the Welsh Marches too and severe damage to birdlife in all these areas as a result of habitat decline is inevitable too.We are amazed that Defra's advisers did not point out that the level of farm improvement on the edges of the SDA over the past 29 years."
He added that Defra was forcing unacceptable income reductions on such farms.