As Red Tractor and its Sector Boards look to review farm standards for 2026, the organisation has published a series of priorities for each sector, which it says will guide improvements to the scheme and will be a step towards the ongoing commitments to greater transparency.
Stakeholders are invited to share feedback by the 1st of February through the Red Tractor website.
Chair of Red Tractor, Alistair Mackintosh, says: “By setting out these priorities, we’re giving stakeholders, including farmers and growers, a clear view of the direction of travel in each farming sector and providing an early opportunity for feedback.”
Across all the Sector Boards, the general priorities are to remove superfluous standards and audit points; review the assessment cycle; make use of third-party data; and provide a clear rationale for standards.
Each Sector then has its own priorities, based on the requirements of stakeholders.
Beef and Lamb
Objectives for the beef and lamb sector include rebuilding farmer trust and ensuring that the scheme evolves to meet market and trade requirements. Its priority actions are:
- Review and justify standards to ensure they are proportionate and reflect current farming practice
- Align standards with Red Tractor’s Vision and Purpose
- Horizon scan emerging topics for inclusion in Beef & Lamb Standards
- Explore opportunities to tailor assessment type and frequency with compliance history, while maintaining supply chain confidence.
In the longer term, the Board will explore opportunities for data-driven farm profiling, alternative compliance methods and assessing Red Tractor’s overall role in supporting efforts around water pollution, waste management, air quality, biodiversity and carbon reduction.
Combinable crops and sugar beet
The crops and sugar beet Board aim to move beyond a one-size-fits-all approach and investigate risk-based auditing, with the potential to extend audit cycles and streamline compliance. The priority actions laid out are:
- Facilitate meetings with growers and supply chain representatives to understand customer requirements
- Review options to reflect the needs of different supply chains, supported by impact assessments
- Assess the feasibility of longer audit cycles, balancing grower and industry need
- Use data – including non-conformance data – to inform audit frequency discussions
- Work to establish a new set of standards, in-line with Red Tractor’s Vision and Purpose
- Explore standard presentation options, including communicating rationale for standards to scheme participants and customers
- Investigate smarter options for demonstrating compliance (e.g. uploading photographs to the Red Tractor Members Portal)
- Assess the potential for earned recognition to support standard justification and changes
- Reignite collaborative discussions on opening trade assurance (Gatekeeper) routes
In the medium term, the Board will look to launch its updated standards and explore opportunities for add-ons that could offer value to participants.
Dairy
The dairy Sector Board hopes to support consumer confidence and support the long-term viability and competitiveness of the sector. It’s 2026 actions are:
- Review and justify standards to ensure they are proportionate and reflect current farming practice
- Confirm standards align with Red Tractor’s Vision and Purpose
- Use TACs to horizon scan emerging topics
- Explore opportunities to tailor assessment type and frequency with compliance history, while maintaining supply chain confidence
- Look at how the beef/dairy scheme can operate better to reduce burdens
Fresh Produce
Reducing the audit burden and shifting assessment focus to ensure standards are evidenced through practical compliance as well as paperwork, are the focus within the fresh produce Board. The following priorities have been floated for 2026:
- Review crop risk categories
- Develop specific standards for leafy salads
- Quantify the audit burden across the sector
- Document the rationale for existing standards
By 2030, the Board aims to have more bespoke standards and pursue further opportunities for recognition, while also considering the environmental implications on food safety.
Pigs
The pigs Board aims to keep producers aligned with evolving regulations and protect the industry reputation, while simultaneously reducing the audit burden and maintaining a positive relationship with grassroots producers. To do this, it aims to:
- Finalise and launch the Enhanced Welfare Outdoor Bred module for pig producers
- Agree long-term aspirations on key topics (e.g. farrowing, stocking, slurry management & sustainability, welfare outcome assessment)
- Review existing standard content to capture rationale and identify appropriate level of review required
- Trial the use of digital Quarterly Vet Reviews to improve efficiency and data availability.
Poultry
The poultry Board will update standards and evolve its audit practices, as well as improve engagement and better harness technology and data. It’s 2026 priorities are:
- Refresh the Poultry TAC and start a standards review
- Explore additional certification modules to support environmental and welfare aims
- Define data governance through a dedicated group
- Scope opportunities to harness data from the industry to inform compliance and group level audit options
- Kick off farmer engagement and technical communications refresh
The long term focus is to integrate data and farmer-facing tools for benchmarking, as well as use data to build a continuous compliance model.