One of the longest-running sagas in the farming world has been the unresolved dispute over which red meat promotional organisation should have access to the levies collected when animals are slaughtered.
For the past eight years the levies from cattle, sheep and pigs born, raised and finished in Scotland but slaughtered in England and Wales, have been scooped up by the promotional bodies in those latter countries.
This loss of revenue to Scotland is estimated by Quality Meat Scotland to remove £1.4 million from its budget annually.
Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael has expressed his frustration that the working groups trying to bring forward a solution to the dispute had, so far, failed to do so.
On a visit to Fife he said: “Quite candidly, this has been a long time coming and I am now viewing it with a real sense of impatience.
“If by New Year we do not have a resolution, or something close to it, then the politicians should move in and bang some heads together.
He believed that with all the existing livestock control systems, it should not be beyond the wit of man to provide a simple redistribution of the funds without setting up massive bureaucratic controls.
While he was reluctant to comment specifically on what he would like to see emerge in farming terms from the Smith Commission which is looking into opportunities for further devolution he did think there was scope to improve the way Scotland and England dealt with each other and with Europe.
He described this week’s spat as to who should sit in the UK seat at the EU Fisheries Council as a classic example of politicking.
He said there had to be a better way for the two governments to deal with such situations.