Beef / Lamb & Pig Price Tracker

[welger rp 220]

What is the current base price?I have been offered by a local butcher £3.90 a kilo r grade but it will cost me £75 to have an animal killed and delivered to him from a slaughterhouse surprisingly there is no waiting list for a private kill!!!!.I currently don't have any fat cattle.Would there be a margin if I bought fat cattle at a livestock auction hes not concerned about weights?What breeds would be r grade?

 

[matthew]

Can someone explain to me (as I am ignorant on this) in what way the Polish farmer is subsidised for his beef production that differs from the UK farmer's subsidy

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rica/pdf/PO0203_decoupling.pdf

Poland, Rumania and much of the Eastern states and also, curiously, France, Belgium and Holland (and others) are NOT decoupled from direct support. This is available for beef, sheep and goats. It includes development grant aid for new plant, and CDP (Coupled Direct Payments) for fatteners including a slaughter premium.

The UK supports beetle banks, badgers and plans to 'grow' houses on prime agricultural land - or flood it to maintain compliance with Wetland Habitat directives.

Decoupling is talked about for post 2020 - to be replaced with - recoupling?

That is what we are trying to compete with.

 

[Penmoel]

What is the current base price?I have been offered by a local butcher £3.90 a kilo r grade but it will cost me £75 to have an animal killed and delivered to him from a slaughterhouse surprisingly there is no waiting list for a private kill!!!!.I currently don't have any fat cattle.Would there be a margin if I bought fat cattle at a livestock auction hes not concerned about weights?What breeds would be r grade?

335p kg St Merryn, so you have 55p kg to play with on say 350kg = £192.50 less your £75 and any other costs, any decent beef breed should do an R , just avoid dairy bred

 

[chipsngravy]

The direction of the beef price is a worry at the moment, price volatility is the biggest threat to profitability in my opinion. We have enjoyed an extended period of price rises that has made us feel very good and flattered a lot of feeders, including me, into thinking what good and profitable farmers they are. The reality is that the increased margin we have made has year on year been put back into replacing stores.
It is the suckler men who should be most concerned by this situation though as they are the only link in the chain who are not able to pass on their increasing costs. Store prices have held up as buyers pockets are still full of money and they are taking a gamble that prices will recover in the medium to long term. If they don't then they will take there margin for this years cattle next spring.

I think the store Price is down round here, most of my weanlings gone now but I'm down average of 25p kilo on them from last year. Which is average of £125 steers and £100 on heifers. If beef price does keep dropping be less suckler producers and fat men.

£3.90/£4 kg DW would be nice again and do-able if retailers give us more % of retail price. I think we deserve 60% given we have grown the beast for 24/30 months with plenty of risks in that time.

 

[balerman]

I don't think the price will go as low as GUTH says(below £3/kilo)because it is being carefully managed downwards by people such as Goodman and Dracup.They know as well as anyone that there would be mass exodus from cattle in the UK if that happened as it is simply unsustainable with our costs where they are.They will try to manage it at a level that is just sustainable,£3.20/kilo has been mentioned,very much like the milk price was managed until recently.It is even more worrying than the milk job was tho,because milk has a much shorter shelf life than beef,and is not as easily imported.

 

[Chae1]

Store price actually risen up here. This report from local auction mart allows you to compare previous years prices.

http://www.anmgroup.co.uk/marts/livestockauctions/salesreports/2013/Apr13/apr26.php

 

[Hampton]

I believe in selling live rather than deadweight ( cant sell cattle liveweight due to being under TB2 ) but the liveweight price currently is below the deadweight price by a long mile.. thou you are right about the native breed schemes....

I sold some heifers live this week and beat the hook price by miles.
Take a look at some of the market reports around the place. Price is still ok (not good) if you have the right kind of cattle.

It's not really about that though, if you don't sell on the hook then the buyers are forced to go into the market, and with regards to setting the price before you go in, that's riddiculous. You already accept the price before you send beasts on the hook.

The key reason I can see to go on the hook is to do with time constraints (going to mart takes time) but there is no point in just moaning and accepting having your leg lifted.

With regards to the NFU, whether. We had a union or not, farmers still wouldn't stick together so can't see how people expect them to work miracles.

 

[z.man]

Well going off how Aldi has thrived recently above other s'markets should we be backing this chain? all their meat is British without exception. I called in our local one late on Easter Monday and the meat shelves were empty, you cant force the consumer to go to the Butchers, but the Aldi model seems to be working well.

Well I'm doing my bit: in Aldi photo and testimonial in their northern shops is from me, glad to hear the shelves were empty maybe I helped a little

 

[z.man]

Give an example of the live weight and dead weight price difference that you mean

averaged 232ppk for heifers in mart last week which is well ahead of deadweight however 50ppk could be taken off this price for more commercial sorts and that is below deadweight so as always it is horses for courses

 

[z.man]

I don't think the price will go as low as GUTH says(below £3/kilo)because it is being carefully managed downwards by people such as Goodman and Dracup.They know as well as anyone that there would be mass exodus from cattle in the UK if that happened as it is simply unsustainable with our costs where they are.They will try to manage it at a level that is just sustainable,£3.20/kilo has been mentioned,very much like the milk price was managed until recently.It is even more worrying than the milk job was tho,because milk has a much shorter shelf life than beef,and is not as easily imported.

3.20 is unsustainable for uk produced suckler bred beef recon 3.60 may be enough to keep production from terminal decline

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Having only ever supported the live ring selling everything through there and never tried deadweight... 3 weeks ago I sold 6 lovely bullocks weighing between 700-780 and was horrified with my trade, I booked 6 much plainer similar weighing bullocks into the deadweight, when the cheque came back the deadweight ones were £100 each more than the liveweight

 

[cudota]

Having only ever supported the live ring selling everything through there and never tried deadweight... 3 weeks ago I sold 6 lovely bullocks weighing between 700-780 and was horrified with my trade, I booked 6 much plainer similar weighing bullocks into the deadweight, when the cheque came back the deadweight ones were £100 each more than the liveweight

teasing you under there spell

 

[Northeastfarmer]

teasing you under there spell

I had a feeling my first load would be my best, that's why I sent 6 as we are only a small farm it cleared a nice hole in them

 

[gone up the hill]

Just been to Morrisons to pick up a couple of things... checked the beef price and they have now put Sirloin UP to £20/ kilo...beef shelve was full of meat.. lamb and pork sections were nearly empty, asked the butcher why... he said we cant sell hardly any british beef but they cant stack the pork/ lamb sections as fast as people are buying it..

 

[Hampton]

I would say lamb is down to seasonality (spring lamb and its spring) and pork is because it is and has always been cheap.

 

[gone up the hill]

I don't think the price will go as low as GUTH says(below £3/kilo)because it is being carefully managed downwards by people such as Goodman and Dracup.They know as well as anyone that there would be mass exodus from cattle in the UK if that happened as it is simply unsustainable with our costs where they are.They will try to manage it at a level that is just sustainable,£3.20/kilo has been mentioned,very much like the milk price was managed until recently.It is even more worrying than the milk job was tho,because milk has a much shorter shelf life than beef,and is not as easily imported.

I hope your right but there is no end of fat cattle about at the moment and for one plant to drop it 10ppk in a single week is not a good sign, more than likely it will go down to nearer £3 kilo than £3.20 but with all this subsidised EU beef available at a massive discount to UK stuff where is the incentive for them to pay anymore than what they can buy it from Poland etc??

Intrestingly the cull cow price has held fairly stable compared to prime beef....

Ref the stores, grass fever is clearly affecting many buyers as stores are easily up £100/£150 head on a year ago for stirks/ smaller stores, so if you allow £200/( £250 in a minute ) less for fat cattle coupled with the £100 extra price for stores you are looking at £300 + less cash for each beast so 200 fhinshed cattle that = £30,000 less in the bank at the year end.. stores need to drop by the above amount with the fat job currently.. ( and yes I know that is no good for the suckler farmer/ dairy rearer )

Ref the live v dead weight and live being better currently, for the very top end stock then yea that's prob right but for anything else if you actually read the market averages and compare to the dead weight ticket for the same type of animal live is far below dead on average..

 

[Tim W]

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rica/pdf/PO0203_decoupling.pdf

Poland, Rumania and much of the Eastern states and also, curiously, France, Belgium and Holland (and others) are NOT decoupled from direct support. This is available for beef, sheep and goats. It includes development grant aid for new plant, and CDP (Coupled Direct Payments) for fatteners including a slaughter premium.

The UK supports beetle banks, badgers and plans to 'grow' houses on prime agricultural land - or flood it to maintain compliance with Wetland Habitat directives.

Decoupling is talked about for post 2020 - to be replaced with - recoupling?

That is what we are trying to compete with.

Thanks for that---it will take a while to get through the 47 pages!

In the meantime ---
In basic terms then how is the EU CAP budget split? Does it get split according to amount of agricultural land per country or by some other means.
Does Poland get the same $ /acre as UK but it is then apportioned differently within states----coupled or not?

 

[Hampton]

I hope your right but there is no end of fat cattle about at the moment and for one plant to drop it 10ppk in a single week is not a good sign, more than likely it will go down to nearer £3 kilo than £3.20 but with all this subsidised EU beef available at a massive discount to UK stuff where is the incentive for them to pay anymore than what they can buy it from Poland etc??

Intrestingly the cull cow price has held fairly stable compared to prime beef....

Ref the stores, grass fever is clearly affecting many buyers as stores are easily up £100/£150 head on a year ago for stirks/ smaller stores, so if you allow £200/( £250 in a minute ) less for fat cattle coupled with the £100 extra price for stores you are looking at £300 + less cash for each beast so 200 fhinshed cattle that = £30,000 less in the bank at the year end.. stores need to drop by the above amount with the fat job currently.. ( and yes I know that is no good for the suckler farmer/ dairy rearer )

Ref the live v dead weight and live being better currently, for the very top end stock then yea that's prob right but for anything else if you actually read the market averages and compare to the dead weight ticket for the same type of animal live is far below dead on average..

That's because they are getting so much dairy/lower quality beef going to the abattoirs that they do not need to buy the basic processing beef from the livestock markets at the moment, so prices reflect accordingly.
Having said that, 600kg sub 16 month black and whites were making 160p in our local mart the other day. If they have been bought well then there is a margin in those.

 

[matthew]

Thanks for that---it will take a while to get through the 47 pages!

In the meantime ---
In basic terms then how is the EU CAP budget split? Does it get split according to amount of agricultural land per country or by some other means.
Does Poland get the same $ /acre as UK but it is then apportioned differently within states----coupled or not?

Quick answer - I don't know, but have asked the question

EU documents are not meant to be 'understood'. But at a guess 'coupled' payments are what we had several years ago, so possibly most or all aid is tied to production? and not much to per hectare.
A lot of EU cash has flowed into the eastern EU states to bring their plant, machinery and infrastructure up to 'EU standards'. Several UK advisers went to Poland a decade ago to guide them through the process! Bless their little cotton socks.

EU grant aid has to be match funded, and that is where we lose out after Fontainbleau. Maggie hand-bagged the politically sacrosanct UK budget rebate, and by some contortionist mathematics, most of the match funding for UK agriculture came out of that.
Hence, we don't apply and we don't get. But we have to compete.

There's also the Ukraine influence: not bombs and bullets, but trade which would have gone to Russia, is now bouncing back into the EU countries (and onwards) at rock bottom prices to gain hard currency..

 

[Tim W]

What I was trying to understand is whether or not Polish farmers get more cash than UK farmers in subsidy?
I understand that it may be apportioned within a country by different means---so we may get more put into Environmental schemes whereas Poland may get more given directly for beef or lamb production , but does it level out when viewed across the industry sectors within a country?