Light carcass weights now 'more of a problem' than heavy - Bord Bia
Beef cattle with overly heavy carcass weights were recently described as "a rarity" at meat plants nowadays, with light carcass weights now perceived as more of a problem than 'overweight' ones.
A regular issue highlighted by farm lobby groups in the past in relation to beef-processing factories was price penalties being applied to cattle which were deemed 'overweight'.
These price penalties were generally applied to cattle with carcass weights exceeding 400-420kg, and often caused contention between procurement staff and farmers.
Speaking at a recent Teagasc beef farm walk, Bord Bia meat and livestock sector manager Joe Burke said: "On average, you have far fewer of the heavy cattle you used to see" at factories.
He noted that, in the past, farmers finishing bulls and continental cattle would regularly have "cattle being killed that were 450kg plus".
He said: "They're a rarity now in meat plants to see those heavy animals. It's nearly more of a problem to see farmers coming in with cattle that are a bit too light."
Burke, who was a guest speaker at the event, was asked to comment on the falling average carcass weights nationally.
He said "average carcass weights came down by nearly 6kg on average across bullocks and heifers" last year.
He attributed this to the tougher grazing conditions last year but also "the mix within the kill".
"You have fewer cattle of a suckler background and more cattle of a dairy background that are mostly Angus and Hereford out of the dairy herd, so that's diluting your average carcass weight to some extent," he said.
"We had seen a trend over a few years where farmers were killing cattle younger year on year. That wasn't the case last year or the previous year - on average, cattle actually were a few days older."
The Bord Bia sector manager attributed this to the tougher weather conditions resulting in the thrive and grazing conditions not being as good over the past two years.
He added that no recovery in average weights for this year is expected.
"We wouldn't see any recovery likely in carcass weights from a Bord Bia perspective - they probably will be very similar to last year."
Burke also said that dairy cull cow carcass weights have fallen by 30kg on average over the past decade.
"A dairy cull cow now only has an average carcass weight of 270kg, back from about 300kg 10 years ago.
"Some of that is genetics, but some of it is the industry wants manufacturing beef. Even a cull cow that's a 'P2' is still getting a very good price today so they have been big beneficiaries of the strong market," he said.
