UK BEEF production could plunge to its lowest level since records began, the National Beef Association (NBA) has warned.

It believes it will sink faster and further after reductions – already recorded in breeding herd numbers – show up in additional falls in abattoir prime cattle throughput over the next three years.

Kim Haywood, NBA director, said many breeders and feeders continued to be disappointed with the market value of their cattle compared with production costs.

“This is demonstrated by the relentless year-on-year decline in the UK’s beef cattle count as well as the disproportionate number of females currently being dumped into the slaughter system instead of being kept back for breeding,” she said.

“The association has no doubt that if this destructive momentum is maintained, the UK beef industry will find itself seriously short of breeding cattle, and domestically produced beef, well before the end of 2011.”

Ms Haywood said it would inevitably mean the sector would not meet domestic retail needs.

She wanted an immediate check on the number of heifers sent to the abattoir instead of the bull – and an end to the cull of fertile cows.

Total UK cattle numbers, both beef and dairy, have fallen below ten million head for the first time. A further 2.6pc reduction in beef cow numbers in 2008 will lead to further falls.

This year’s UK abattoir figures show that while male cattle numbers are down by around eight per cent, heifer slaughterings in England and Wales are up by eight per cent.

Ms Haywood said: “It is all too clear that thousands of heifers that could become useful breeders are being cashed instead. The industry cannot continue to kill off its seed stock on this scale.

“The only possible result is a serious shortfall in domestically produced beef and a simultaneous collapse in veterinary, transport, auction and abattoir structures too.”