Significant differences can now be seen in the beef price received in the UK between ‘in spec’ and ‘out of spec’ beef cattle.
The UK figures could go some way to demonstrating what the future holds for the Irish beef farmers with processors here actively enforcing stricter specifications on beef animals since the new year.
In the UK, the message from the trade continues to be that of a market place with some clear differentiation between the treatment of producers, according to the AHDB.
The price data from the AHDB gives some evidence of the variation that individual producers achieve, even when hitting target specification.
In the latest week R4L steer values ranged from between 240p/kg (310c/kg) and 410p/kg (530c/kg).
According to the AHDB, this continues to highlight how doing everything possible to meet the requirements of the market as accurately and consistently as possible can make a difference to financial returns.
Since the start of the year, Irish beef processors have become increasingly strict both in terms of the weight and the age of cattle brought to slaughter. There have been reports of significant price penalties enforced on farmers who market cattle in excess that are overage or have carcase weights over 400kg.
Cormac Healy of Meat Industry Ireland (MII), the representative body for beef processors, recently advised farmers intending to present overweight cattle to maintain close contact with their processors in advance of presenting such animals.
“These animals are a small minority of the national kill and securing best value for our beef in international markets is strongly dependent on producing cattle that meet the specifications demanded by customers.
“From a farmer’s perspective it makes no sense that in-spec animals should be subsidising the minority of out-of-spec cattle,” he said.
UK beef trade
According to the AHDB, the British deadweight prime cattle trade drifted down marginally for another week.
It says estimates suggest that there was a 900 head increase in the number of cattle coming forward, which the market seemed to take well amid reports that the malaise in the retail environment continues. Overall, the all prime price fell by just half a penny on the week to average 328.5p/kg (423c/kg).
The number of steers estimated to have been slaughtered was up 100 head on the week while heifers coming forward increased 600 head.
Steer and heifer values for those meeting R4L specification came back just a penny in both cases to 340.7p/kg and 339.6p/kg respectively.
The estimated young bull kill for the week was up by 200 head, which the market did react to. While the R3 young bull average was unchanged on the week at 323.5p/kg the overall young bull average lost 5p/kg, much of the gain of the previous week