Conceptualising Disruptions in British Beef and Sheep Supply Chains during the COVID-19 Crisis
, Louise Whatford 2, Mehroosh Tak 2, Steven Van Winden 2 and David Barling 1Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper presents an interesting topic, and provides some detailed explanations from the interviews about these particular supply chains. Overall, the paper is informative and timely.
Some comments for improvement are provided below:
The sections appear in an unconventional way, perhaps worth reconsidering the order as: introduction, literature review, conceptual framework, methodology, results, discussion and conclusions.
It would have been good to provide a clear research question in the introduction.
The literature review needs to be a separate section, and to be comprehensive, at the moment it is scattered throughout the different sections.
There is a section on conceptual framework but no figure appears to be provided, typically consisting of boxes and arrows to indicate the relevant aspects in the research.
Tables 1 and 2 are useful, it would have been good to see the criteria for determining the different ranges of disruption, e.g. minimal to major.
Discussion should go back to the research question and put in context of recent literature and wider sector. No need to put data (the direct interview quotation) in this section.
Conclusions should include summary, implications to knowledge, practice or policy, as well as limitations and future research.
References need to comply to guidelines for authors, e.g. starting with Authors' Surnames rather than first name initials.
Author Response
See attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
The paper, presented for the evaluation, concerns: Conceptualising disruptions in British beef and sheep supply chains during the COVID-19 crisis". The paper is very extensive, interesting and covers of all aspects of supply chains in the production of beef and sheep in British. The extensive quoted literature in the manuscript draws attention and it is the strng point of the investigation. The period of the pandemic is very specific, especially for agricultural production requiring supply chains, and therefore, in my opinion, such work is necessary and valuable. On the duty of the reviewer, however, I have two main comments regarding the methodology and conclusions, namely:
- in my opinion, the list of interviewers was too briefly described. Is it possible more accurately indicate the characteristics of these: "eleven British beef and sheep industry stakeholders"? It means, for example, about the production volume of individual stakeholders, market share, production scope, etc.
- I also think that the conclusions are too general. Based on the results, is it possible to identify specific forecasts for the production of these meat species during an ongoing pandemic in the future? Is it possible to described the obtained results for the other countries, or is this application only in British conditions? Could the impact of the pandemic on meat production also be reduced?
After completing this information, the work should be published.
Best regards
Author Response
See attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
