Fine weather won’t prevent beef issues from heating up
For that alone, cattle farmers are thankful.
Those sitting across the table from the farmers will also be thankful, to have reached the last week of May without farmers having raised the ante.
But it would be a mistake to see the Dublin Castle meeting as a stop-gap to getting the industry towards the better weather and expected summer beef-price lift.
Beef processors can no longer rely on sunshine to keep farmers happy with inadequate beef profitability.
Finishers have got burned too badly, one time too many. They can no longer rely on the big, single farm payments that have kept unprofitable farms going. Meanwhile, the dairy industry is on the starting blocks for expansion, with the many consequences that will have for the 100,000 farm families that keep cattle and sheep, and the 65,000 in specialist beef farming.
Last week, the beef industry in Ireland got a rare mention, from the market experts who put together Rabobank’s beef quarterly report. They said the only disturbance in an otherwise steady EU was in Ireland, where the market for young bulls had dropped considerably. They said beef marketing had been more difficult than expected, despite efforts to build a new outlet for bulls from the dairy industry. They said this highlighted the growing struggle of what to do with ‘dairy’ bulls in the EU beef industry, a challenge that would increase in the coming years, not helped by pressure on the veal industry — the traditional outlet for dairy bulls.
With Ireland set to lead EU dairy expansion, the dairy-bull problem will be most severe here, especially if cattle born here, but raised in the UK, remain unwelcome in our main export market, and our live exports to other countries cannot pass through the UK, and can go elsewhere only on ships equipped to the world’s highest animal-welfare standards.
Fattening dairy bulls to a higher weight, in combination with strong marketing to processors, retail and consumers of both veal and beef, may be the best solution for the dairy bull problem, according to Rabobank’s food and agri-research services. But will Rabobank, and other bankers, put their money into cattle-farmer loans in the hope that the Irish beef industry can overcome the dairy bull challenge? That remains to be seen.
If, as Agriculture Minister Coveney said, last week’s meeting was to map out key next steps to ensure that the beef sector delivers viable returns for all participants, those key steps are still to be unveiled.
Perhaps his most significant progress report, after the meeting, was €500,000 for Bord Bia to intensify promotion of Irish beef in the UK and certain continental EU markets — but opening somewhere like China to Irish beef would be the real game-changer.
Minister Coveney has also undertaken to engage further with his Northern counterpart, Michelle O’Neill, on the beef trade — but the North’s beef industry is also hogtied by export restrictions. There’s the promise of a new Beef Pricewatch online tool to make price information more accessible and free of charge to farmers; but will factory agents be on the same page when they come into a farmer’s yard?
Long-term contracts were mentioned, but only as an idea in the Beef Activation Group.
Teagasc will increase efforts to assist farmers, including advising on adapting to market specifications — but many farmers are suspicious of Teagasc advice, after their bad experiences with bulls. Real problems for farmers remain after the beef round-table. After the meeting, Macra President Kieran O’Dowd said farmers still needed clarity, so that they could provide what the market wanted, instead of specifications being used to devalue their produce. ICSA president Patrick Kent called for structures to deal with sudden and unwarranted changes in price and spec, anti-competitive practices, difficulties in exporting live stores to Northern Ireland and Britain, and savage price cuts on animals without quality assurance.
IFA President Eddie Downey highlighted the overhanging problem of trade deals, which would damage vital European beef and pork markets. At least, they will have a quarterly round-table to discuss these problems. And, for the time being, the weather is fine.
