Opinion – Beef Price Cuts
In this news article on www.thatsfarming.com, ICSA beef chair, Edmund Graham, outlines how beef losses cannot be compounded with further price cuts.
Talks of further cuts to beef prices are deeply troubling, given what farmers are currently paying to produce beef.
It appears factories remain hell-bent on getting prices down – whether market indications show a need for that or not.
We listen to their excuses, but they just do not add up to the level of scaling back on price they have already done, and by all accounts, are planning to do.
It is astonishing that meat processors are still attempting to ignore what it is actually costing our farmers to produce beef.
Feedstuffs are almost as dear as they were last year and none of our other input costs have reduced in any meaningful manner.
At the same time, many beef farmers are trying to adjust to significantly reduced basic payments.
Put simply, we are operating with higher costs and lower supports, and we already losing €300 per head on stores purchased in the spring. This cannot continue.
I am urging all farmers to push hard for prices in the coming weeks.
I would encourage all farmers to negotiate hard for prices and to keep voicing their dissatisfaction with what is being offered.
The cost of production – which Teagasc has put at €6/kg – cannot continue to be disregarded.
George Candler comments
As part of George Candler’s report from Kilkenny Mart’s cattle sale last Thursday, the renowned livestock auctioneer commented that “the impact caused by quotes being dropped on a weekly basis by factories is leading to a lot of frustration and anger from the hard-pressed beef producer”.
“Do factories want this sector to survive?” he asked in this news article.
Meanwhile, Pat McKay of the UFU, based in Northern Ireland, commented that “selling cattle in the ring is not reflecting the price that processors are giving”.
He commented: “Good quality live weights are selling well, and most farmers are content with the return. I urge farmers to consider selling cattle in the live ring to gain a better return.”
Read more on this opinion piece.
