Beef group says contracts can work for half year

The legal option for Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney to rule that all beef cattle be purchased by written contract has been invoked by Michael Dowling, chairman of the Beef Activation Group which has set the target for a 40% increase in the value of beef output.

Farmers and processors should work towards a much greater proportion of supply on a contractual basis, especially, but not only for the winter/spring period, Mr Dowling told this week’s beef roundtable.

He said there is little appetite in Ireland for the optional EU legislation to make contract purchasing mandatory, but recommended that contract supply become the dominant practice, in addition to the existing 30% or more of cattle purchased from January to May.

Mr Dowling’s report to the round table is “an excellent roadmap for where we take our work from here”.

If the Dowling recommendations are accepted in the industry, farmers can look forward to more contract deals for beef, better communication from processors; coherent advice on breeding, husbandry and farm management; the advantages of producer groups; and extra market analysis services from Bord Bia.

These were among the Beef Activation Group chairman’s recommendations in a presentation largely sympathetic to cattle farmers.

However, he held out little hope of better market prospects for nomad cattle — such as cattle imported live from Ireland for fattening and for slaughter in the UK. He also said the topical carcase specifications are in line with the requirements to service the main retailers in the UK.

“These specifications have been in place for many years but do not appear to have been always rigidly enforced in processors’ cattle buying systems in earlier years. Over the past few months, however, there has been a more consistent approach by the processors”.

He said lighter carcases of cattle killed at earlier ages will probably extract the best value from a range of markets and, if produced efficiently, are desirable from a farming point of view also. The bulk of cattle slaughtered in Ireland are at carcase weights under 380kg, he noted.

The heavier cattle are from the suckler herd, where current breeding policy has not been sufficiently aligned to the carcase specifications required, according to Mr Dowling.