As I understand it, no export has been deliberately “stopped”. China has been unable to accept imports due to staff problems in cutting plants, they have not made a deliberate attempt to influence the market by banking imports. Same as the Eu, if you can get it there and they can cut it then the market (which we massively depend upon) is open.
Of you can produce a six leg lamb with no head, guts etc then we won’t need to export or import. Simple.
But let’s be honest the only hope we have for higher prices is when someone on foreign shores wants to pay for it. As meat is devalued In this country.
. Yes we import lamb but we also export much more.......
so having kept a lamb for 12+ months ,and after the winter we have just had they now want to pay £65,
This is the truth, wether we like it or not, it’s fact.Your post is far too honest and factual for this forum
Makes such a refreshing change to hear the thoughts of a farmer who pays attention to the market and actually understands the price influencing factors
Whats your advice then. Sell early and minimise your costs but take a lower price?
My advice would only be worth what you paid for it...but If we are expected to sell hoggs in March and April from £65 then there’s zero incentive to do so...may as well dump them off grass in August out the way
We have a board which is a levy funded which does not have farmers involved. If you want to counteract them and it is about time we all woke up to the fact we are at the mercy of the meat trade as we have no control of the finished price.This saga will define the future of the "fat market" as we cannot be held out to dry as its our livelehood. We must increase our involvement in the abattoir business (Farmers Fresh have two plants and export and that is what a small group of Farmers i Mid Wales saw 20 years ago and have 2500 shareholders). The livestock store ring is bouyant as farmers are the bidders but for that to work we have to know our end product price-- A price which is sustainable. Allied to that we must employ our own PR Firms and collect our levies ourselves. Young Farmer / Social media a massive free advertising forum totally ignored and unused.. Any body seen an advert promoting our product -- theres one on the telly which is counteracted by the Tesco offer of cheap Lamb at £7 which will be seen more. . I sell most of my lambs direct but would happily place them in the hands of auctioneer as the agent and each market should own/control their own haulage lorry network. We dont want the highs and lows but a consistent price which we would have to work with the supermarkets. Owning millions of pounds of land and assets is a waste of time when we do not control the end product price. We must take responsibility in our marketing up a couple of notches. Prior to entering Europe we had a guarenteed price system and now that we are leaving we must examine that workable system again and adapt it to the modern era. Marketing of livestock has always evolved in different ways and we must adapt again
This^^^
Farmers need more control in the food chain, we need to be investing off farm into the food chain or we just become slaves to the system .Lets hope once this is over we get key people together and move on to the modern way of marketing and supply which makes the job sustainable. Totally agree that we must not be slaves to the systemThis^^^
yea have a few, im doing on feeders , thinking of removing creep now , grass is coming and quality will be there , wont be selling any for a month now at least . £65 - £70 for winter born lambs will be simply a joke with all inputs going up .
we all need to reduce supply now ,
