Protests dominate tough week for beef producers

Beef producers who vented their anger at beef prices through their protest outside all of the factories across the country on Monday and Tuesday are in ‘wait and see’ mode for the outcome.

But one has to be more hopeful than optimistic on a favourable outcome after another surge in the supply of cattle to the factories last week brought the intake to its highest since December 2007.

The increasing anger among farmers selling finished cattle has been palpable in recent weeks as they watched the difference between prices being paid here and in Northern Ireland and UK widen.

There was demand from the farmers who manned the protest lines at the factories for less of the familiar waffle and more down to business constructive discussion ahead of yesterday’s meeting of the Beef Forum, which year to date has delivered nothing to ease the anger that has been building up on beef farms.

Several of the practices which have grown into determining the actual return that producers receive from the factories need to be revisited. Can the continuation of a penalty on animals over 30 months be justified?

Is it acceptable that animals from Bord Bia certified Quality Assurance farm lose all benefit of the scheme once the animal is a day older than 30 months. At the same timeit would be difficult for a producer to sell a non-QA animal over 30 months without paying the QA price — it seems like.

Then, of coarse, there is the issue of weight restrictions which should be flagged sufficiently in advance to give producers the opportunity to meet the requirements.

Other than a few cents more being paid for heifers there is very little change in the quoted prices from the factories for this week. The base price for steers is generally at 365 cents/kg with the top of the trade a few cents more. The premium on heifers has increased to 10 cents/kg with the base quote at 375 cents/kg which is the going rate for most the heifers this week.

The supply last week reached 36,870 head, which was an increase of 1,000 on the previous week and around 3,000 head more than the corresponding week last year.

In Britain the beef prices have continued to increase with R4L grade steers averaging at Stg 360.6 pence/kg — which is equivalent in euro to 504 cent/kg (including Vat).

The trade is going through some change with retailers focusing more on round cut promotions ahead of Christmas, which is in turn seeing demand for steak cuts and forequarter slowing down.

In France the market continues to remain steady with some promotions focused on steak cuts.

The cow prices are also stable at a base for O/P grade of 300-325 cents/kg and up to 340 cents/kg for R’s.