Young bull classification expected to change
“We are talking about introducing it in stages, having a warning period. The view of the industry and the IFA was that it should start with steers and heifers,” said Teagasc researcher Bernard Smyth. “Further negotiation will take place before the system is introduced for bulls.”
Teagasc director of research Dr Frank O’Mara said the factor that has caused most uncertainty and distrust among farmers is the poor price currently paid for beef.
“The introduction of the quality payment grid has coincided with a period of poor prices. If the grid had not been introduced in December this meeting would probably still be discussing the reasons for the poor price of beef,” he said, when Teagasc experts reported last week to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on the new payment grid.
Mr Smyth revealed that suppliers to the certified Angus scheme and the Hereford prime scheme have not lost out in the new payment grid, because the premium over the base price which they get from processors was renegotiated upward after the payment grid was introduced.
However, the 40,000 to 50,000 animals in the certified Angus scheme is only about 5% of the national kill of steers and heifers, and the Hereford prime scheme covers only about 2% of the national kill, perhaps 20,000 animals per year.
The Teagasc delegation said data for the second week of February indicated that the grid increased the price differential between O and U grade carcasses from 18.4 cent to 30 cent per kilo. “Our differential is now slightly higher than that which obtains in the UK. However, we are still quite far behind France and Italy in this regard, . There are various local marketing reasons which explain why the differentials in those two countries might be so high,” said Dr O’Mara.
