Beef farmers are pleading for an early indication about the way farm support will change once the Single Farm Payment scheme has run its course.

But they are already warning that with all four administrative areas of the UK running their own SFP system it will be difficult to organise a harmonious exit when the scheme terminates in 2012.

And there's even more uncertainty because no one yet knows whether the EC has plans for a new form of SFP to replace the current regime.

But National Beef Association director Kim Haywood said farmers needed to plan ahead.

She said senior EU officials were hinting that the SFP system would be extended beyond 2012 in the form of a universal flat-rate payment, while rural development and conservation funding would become secondary.

"But details of how a flat-rate system will operate are non-existent," she said.

"There will be problems within the UK when SFP payment structures are rolled forward and these should be sorted out now so that farmers have prior warning and damage to farm structures is minimised."

Meanwhile, Shadow Defra Secretary Tim Farron MP has revealed that thousands of SFP payments are worth substantially less than the cost of administering them.

Processing individual payouts under the scheme costs an average of £742 but figures obtained by Mr Farron reveal more than 14,500 payments of under £400 were made in 2007. These figures include 636 claims of under £50 and one of just 70p.

Reforms to the EU scheme would bring in minimum payments for 2010, either set at between 100 and 200 euros or in the range of one to five hectares. But Mr Farron has now called for the introduction of a higher figure set at about £250, with the money saved from processing these claims to be given over to a new scheme to breathe new life into struggling hill farms.