THE latest plan for picking-up farmers' dead stock as a result of last year's ban of on-farm burials has been announced by the National Fallen Stock Company.

Fallen stock is to be picked-up on a pay-as-you-go basis from autumn.

The new set-up answers concerns over the original plan for an annual subscription to the scheme of between £50 to £1,000, depending on farm size. It had raised fears that some farmers would end up effectively subsiding others.

The NFSC delayed the launch of the scheme in spring and has since been consulting with the farming industry. The National Farmers' Union and others have backed the new structure of charging farmers according to their usage of the scheme.

Under the latest proposals all livestock farmers can have their dead stock collected through the scheme on payment of a nominal annual registration fee.

There will no call centre as originally proposed. Instead farmers will be able to contact an approved knacker yard or alternative outlet of their choice.

As members of the scheme, the rates they pay contractors for collection and disposal should be considerably lower than current commercial rates because the Government will be subsidising the scheme.

The Government will be paying the NFSC per carcass collected and the company will then pay the collectors directly.

Charges will be set locally by those picking up the stock rather than dictated nationally - to encourage competition.

Cumbria's NFU county chairman Alistair Mackintosh said farmers had been burying and burning fallen stock for thousands of year and many did not see the need for change.

But he stressed that the practice had been banned and farmers now needed to work with the regulations.

He felt the new fallen stock collection proposals looked like they would create a fairer scheme than the one originally mooted.

"The initial payment is going to be cheaper and that bodes well. Trying to encourage competition between collectors looks good as well. I would want to encourage everyone to sign-up for this and use it."

The NFSC is aiming to have the collection scheme up and running in autumn.