THE European Commission has agreed to pave the way to raise the BSE testing age for cattle to 48 months on January 1, 2009.

EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassillou agreed to raise the limit from the current 30 months. The change in policy is subject to confirmation in Brussels by SCOFCAH, the committee that oversees food chain issues, that is due to consider the matter in mid-October.

NFU Scotland vice-president Nigel Miller said: "Genuine progress is now being made on Europe's TSE roadmap. There is a long way to go but opportunities to strip costs out of the beef chain are now coming forward. Where there are opportunities, there are also issues and anomalies. While the age requirement for BSE testing for those cattle going into the food chain will move to 48 months, the requirement for spinal cord to be removed from beef carcase will remain at 30 months. For later finishing animals, this raises the spectre of a two-tier market, as it may be more difficult to sell beef on the bone from those animals between 30 and 48 months of age.

"NFUS also understands that the change to the BSE testing age will also affect fallen animals that die or are put down on the farm. Currently, fallen cattle over 24 months require BSE testing and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs collects and tests these animals for free. Defra has already indicated that in the future it intends to pass the cost of collecting any animals requiring BSE testing back to farmers while it will continue to pay the test. This means that in the future animals older than 48 months that die on farm will require collecting and testing with Defra requiring farmers to pay for the collection. Once the changes are made, all animals under 48 months that die on farm will require collection via the normal fallen stock routes."

Rural sector may escape home reports SELLERS of many rural properties may not have to produce a home report as this is the area where exceptions to the new rules will most apply, according to property agents Knight Frank.

A home report will have to be produced for every home marketed in Scotland after December 1. The home report must include a survey, including a valuation, a report on the energy efficiency of the house and property questionnaire.

According to Knight Frank, many rural properties, if not split into separate lots, should qualify as exceptions and therefore the provision of a home report will not apply.

Michael Ireland, head of rural valuations with Knight Frank in Scotland, said: "We have always argued that the home report would be an additional and unnecessary burden on the seller and unlikely to eliminate the requirement of lenders to have a separate valuation undertaken to meet their own conditions. How-ever, it appears that much of the rural sector, along with new homes, will escape this new requirement."