U-grades in prime-cattle kill fall to 12% in the North

U-GRADES in the prime cattle kill in Northern Ireland have fallen from 20% in the five weeks before the introduction of mechanical grading last March to 12% in the five weeks after.

In April 2010, 22% of prime cattle carcases were U grades.

Meanwhile, P grades in the five weeks after the start of mechanical grading increased to 12% of prime cattle, compared with 6% in the previous five-week period, and 3% in April last year.

The proportion of animals killing at fat class three was 48% in the first five weeks of the change from manual to machine grading, versus 57.5% in the previous five weeks. There has been an increased proportion of prime cattle grading at fat classes one to five, in the switch from manual to mechanical grading.

Farmers in the North are losing up to £50 (€57.30) a head due to inaccuracies in mechanical grading, according to National Beef Association (NBA) leaders, who urged farmers to consider shipping their finished cattle to the British mainland to have them killed.

NBA chairman Oisin Murnion said: “Some farmers are losing over £50 a head because R-grade cattle have been transformed into Os. These are significant losses for the farmer and equally significant gains for the factory owner.”

Sources in the Livestock and Meat Commission said some farmers might not be happy with the carcase grades awarded, but the new pricing grid accompanying the new grading system should compensate. The new grid is designed to be price-neutral, to compensate for tighter classification, and to better reward suckler-origin cattle.

However, many cattle farmers reacted badly last year to a similar pricing grid introduced south of the border, where mechanical grading has been used since 2004.

Commission experts noted comparing carcase grades before and after mechanical grading is not straightforward, as manual grading continues for some of the North’s price reported kill; changes in grading results may be due to changes in the slaughter mix, such as an increasing proportion of dairy-origin beef; and the North’s new 15-point grading scale that offers much greater flexibility than the five-point scale it replaced.