Beef / Lamb & Pig Price Tracker

J 1177

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Durham, UK
I was talking to an old business acquaintance the other day who runs a busy collection centre in Wales collecting fat cattle/sheep. He says talking to the meat firms they also seem to be using the current situation to manipulate their supply base. He has warned them a lot of his farmers would go back to selling stores at these fat prices to which they replied good, as the store price will fall with extra supply and the big feeding men sending regular numbers, the suppliers they want will be able to keep full and have some margin so everyone is happy. I can only assume from that most of the out of spec cattle come from the small/occasional suppliers as well as the supply fluctuations. Please don’t shoot the messenger [emoji856]
I believe every word of this. Short sighted but we saw that during foot and mouth they could have been reasonable and finished off the livestock markets but they couldn't help themselves and crashed the prices.
 

ISCO

Member
Location
North East
That may well be true but sucklers are still a hell of a trade . Once we are all rearing dairy bred calves on a cost of production payment contract and moaning at the price the firms will say " well ,what we really want is higher spec suckler types"
If beef price keeps declining there will be a revaluation throughout the sector. Finishers and calf rearers can and ultimately will cut purchase price.
Suckler cows have nowhere to save costs assuming we are all farming as efficiently as our farms allow.
 

Doddsy

Member
I can well believe consumption is well down due to above factors. Just this week Mrs May called for 20% cut in meat consumption to tackle climate change, how long before this is policy and schools forced to reduce consumption.
We desperately need some good PR. There is a thread on seaweed reducing methane in cattle by 99%. If this is proven in time this may help. We need science to back our industry.

Unfortunately cutting meat consumption is something everyone can do with little effort and cost whereas insulating the house or buying an electric car costs money and is not always convenient.

There may also be an element of supermarkets using this as an excuse along with brexit to reduce prices.

Only time will tell however I think the industry is now facing it's greatest challenge. Lots of big players investing in lab grown meat and plant alternatives. If these are perfected the sh!t well hit the fan.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-scotland-48621272
 

jendan

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Atm , selling fat in the market is even worse than dead ( assuming you can get a booking ) - and the store man is going to have to deal with a ~30% drop in value of his store animal for the finisher to want to buy them. People need to start looking at real cop figures from their business , not percieved. Stores at £1000+, no matter what age or condition cannot make a profit even fed on air , so the sooner the job gets re- aligned the better.
Plenty of stores at £1000+ at Hexham today.Plenty of buyers chasing very few cattle.In fact nearly everything i saw was above.
 

Gedd

Member
Livestock Farmer
Plenty of stores at £1000+ at Hexham today.Plenty of buyers chasing very few cattle.In fact nearly everything i saw was above.
Yes but they were cheaper than last week I thought although still not cheap enough I got 2 year old bullocks for 900 thought they would be 100 cheaper than those I bought earlier in the year
 
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Spuddler

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Summer set
Too many sheep in this country.
Everyone who buys a house and a few acres
and watches countryfile have this romantic
Idea of keeping them.
Then for every farmer who's cut nos another
one has doubled up because someones told
them it's a nos game .
Farmers are their own worst enemy .
And yes I've cut mine 200 ewes because
there's simply too many!
That's true
When I started with sheep in this area hardly anyone had sheep and I was muddling along fine
Now every other place around here seems to have them.
We seem to be our own worst enemies
 
Atm , selling fat in the market is even worse than dead ( assuming you can get a booking ) - and the store man is going to have to deal with a ~30% drop in value of his store animal for the finisher to want to buy them. People need to start looking at real cop figures from their business , not percieved. Stores at £1000+, no matter what age or condition cannot make a profit even fed on air , so the sooner the job gets re- aligned the better.
I haven’t noticed the finishers rushing out to buy a herd of beef breeding cows yet. Obviously the grass isn’t greener yet
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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