Beef / Lamb & Pig Price Tracker

lloyd

Member
Location
Herefordshire
I replied above so read the post!

Do you work for a deadweight buyer by any chance??

I use live mostly but anyone who thinks live selling
Is fair to all is an absolute fool .
Time and again pens reserved in areas of markets
for certain individuals .
The same individuals not having their animals drawn first etc etc.
Yeah most of us remember foot and mouth scandal but I also
remember selling fat cattle £80 a head too cheap live as
opposed to what the equivalent made me deadweight.
Neither are perfect that's why I mix and match.
 

thorpe

Member
I use live mostly but anyone who thinks live selling
Is fair to all is an absolute fool .
Time and again pens reserved in areas of markets
for certain individuals .
The same individuals not having their animals drawn first etc etc.
Yeah most of us remember foot and mouth scandal but I also
remember selling fat cattle £80 a head too cheap live as
opposed to what the equivalent made me deadweight.
Neither are perfect that's why I mix and match.
another reason why i dont go live, why get up at 5 to get in mkt by 7 to be sold at the end , quality helping there average look good.that auctoneer now a dead weight buyer wouldnt have him on the farm!
 

Frank-the-Wool

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex

You do not say where in the country you are and by the sound of it you are a long way away from your nearest live market.
However your comments about only using deadweight selling and being much better off may well be true some of the time. Those of us who do not have the luxury of nearby competitive abattoirs on our doorstep have to rely mostly on the local markets which in this area operate well and you have the option of putting a reserve price on your stock.
The deadweight price is still set by the live auctions so the greater control the large mostly Irish owned abattoirs have over supply and demand the weaker the individual farmers become in getting a fair price. There is no way the recent beef price increase would have occurred unless the live price had rocketed up, especially the cull cows.
The large finishers do get a different price and terms through the big abattoirs for obvious reasons. The live markets often help to level these differences.

The important point is that with the live markets you need a good dialogue with the Auctioneer and understand the value of your stock and are you sending them to the right market.
There is absolutely no point in taking lean dairy bred cattle to a market that specialises in Suckler bred beef.

I send both ways but would prefer to sell everything live, however being in a TB1 area makes selling cattle live very difficult now.

I wonder how many Store Cattle sellers this Spring were very pleasantly surprised by the value of their stock through the markets!!
 

Hfd Cattle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Hereford
You do not say where in the country you are and by the sound of it you are a long way away from your nearest live market.
However your comments about only using deadweight selling and being much better off may well be true some of the time. Those of us who do not have the luxury of nearby competitive abattoirs on our doorstep have to rely mostly on the local markets which in this area operate well and you have the option of putting a reserve price on your stock.
The deadweight price is still set by the live auctions so the greater control the large mostly Irish owned abattoirs have over supply and demand the weaker the individual farmers become in getting a fair price. There is no way the recent beef price increase would have occurred unless the live price had rocketed up, especially the cull cows.
The large finishers do get a different price and terms through the big abattoirs for obvious reasons. The live markets often help to level these differences.

The important point is that with the live markets you need a good dialogue with the Auctioneer and understand the value of your stock and are you sending them to the right market.
There is absolutely no point in taking lean dairy bred cattle to a market that specialises in Suckler bred beef.

I send both ways but would prefer to sell everything live, however being in a TB1 area makes selling cattle live very difficult now.

I wonder how many Store Cattle sellers this Spring were very pleasantly surprised by the value of their stock through the markets!!
Have said this before on the thread but fat cattle don't necessarily need to go to a 'fat' sale . Many cattle go through Hereford market store sales that are fit and the buyers are there for them . It's almost a market within a market ....if you get what I mean .
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
Have said this before on the thread but fat cattle don't necessarily need to go to a 'fat' sale . Many cattle go through Hereford market store sales that are fit and the buyers are there for them . It's almost a market within a market ....if you get what I mean .
I agree but its only because some have contracts on better prices, this is actually driving farmers to sell in livestock markets and working against the slaughterhouse's and costing them money which seems odd. I know for a fact that i can get more money for a fat cull cow in hereford for example than i could if i went to abp, pickstocks or foyles direct ,but that same fat cull is going there the following day anyway!
 

Optimus

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North of Perth
Get where Thorpe is coming from.sold plenty live in the past but to end up no better off than dead.don't rely bother now.sell the odd out of spec an a few cows but even cows I can sometimes be better dead.
 

Top Tip.

Member
Location
highland
I agree but its only because some have contracts on better prices, this is actually driving farmers to sell in livestock markets and working against the slaughterhouse's and costing them money which seems odd. I know for a fact that i can get more money for a fat cull cow in hereford for example than i could if i went to abp, pickstocks or foyles direct ,but that same fat cull is going there the following day anyway!
That’s not the way it works up here, the dealers who are buying the cull cows are putting these cows into the abattoirs in there own name and depending on the ko% to make their profit . I will support the live ring at every opportunity but cull cows are the exception as I don’t see the point of making wealthy men of a few individuals.
 
You have a LOT to learn!

If markets had been shut down back in March when the lockdown started then prime beef would be sub £3 kilo now and spring lambs would never have been over £4 kilo or £80 head and hoggs would have been sub £70 head.

Quite clear you are the type that are happy to take 10pk more deadweight to screw over your fellow farmers..

Disgusting!
Quite agree with your comment about markets supporting the current prices.

A bit harsh to say that anyone taking a decent deadweight price is 'screwing over fellow farmers'! I know if I sent my lambs in at peak time, I would be getting significantly less than deadweight thereby subsidising someone else's 3/4 Texel creep-fed lambs that the buyers would be crowing about. I don't think by avoiding that scenario I am screwing anyone over!
 

Northern territory

Member
Livestock Farmer
Quite agree with your comment about markets supporting the current prices.

A bit harsh to say that anyone taking a decent deadweight price is 'screwing over fellow farmers'! I know if I sent my lambs in at peak time, I would be getting significantly less than deadweight thereby subsidising someone else's 3/4 Texel creep-fed lambs that the buyers would be crowing about. I don't think by avoiding that scenario I am screwing anyone over!
its a balance. While we have sent everything live this spring sometimes especially with cattle there seems to be a bit of a closed club. Face fits and all that. I can’t say they would have made anymore dead though.
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
That’s not the way it works up here, the dealers who are buying the cull cows are putting these cows into the abattoirs in there own name and depending on the ko% to make their profit . I will support the live ring at every opportunity but cull cows are the exception as I don’t see the point of making wealthy men of a few individuals.
Dealers/feeder buyers are earning a profit around here but its at the slaughterhouse's expense not the farmer because the buyers are paying more than the SH would pay the farmer direct.
 
The dead live debate is not clear cut, there are benefits to both and regional divides are a major factor. The West Country can only dream of the live prices “up North” despite the “sell live to thrive” voice piece being from the SW. There will be plenty of cattle stood in adjoining pens today in Frome that will be stood in adjoining pens tomorrow at an abattoir despite being knocked down to different buyers, and many of them weighed in. Personally wouldn’t sell any finished cattle through the “fat ring” down here, they would go through Sedge store ring as strong stores if at all.
 

z.man

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
central scotland
I know of no one who has died of the virus.

I know of THREE people who have died due to cancelled operations/ treatment due to the NHS only being forcused on Virus treatments for the last 3 months!

As for WSM, the problem there is the totally useless managers at the hospital, the guy in overall charge couldn't organize a pee up in a brewery if you turned the taps on for him ( and that comes from someone I know who is a close relation of his )

Only 20 deaths a day from the virus itself now, most coroners have NOT seen a death certificate for things like heart attacks/ cancer etc in the last 6/8 weeks... One very clever virus to cure ALL heart attacks/ cancer deaths is all I can say!...................
Your a lucky man then hope it stays that way with the virus, but I’m ok Jack is not a great reason to celebrate
Lambs £ 2.40 Live weight cattle 3.70 deadweight ?
 
Have said this before on the thread but fat cattle don't necessarily need to go to a 'fat' sale . Many cattle go through Hereford market store sales that are fit and the buyers are there for them . It's almost a market within a market ....if you get what I mean .
The same applies up here. Plenty of fat cattle and sheep sold through the stores. Less offtakes more buyers, more competition.
The sellers of prime cattle are more favoured when they send a load a week than a trailer load now and again like myself
 
Quite clear you are the type that are happy to take 10pk more deadweight to screw over your fellow farmers..

Disgusting!
The strongest buyers of strong cattle on a Saturday at Sedge are all deadweight sellers and I suspect this applies to many other places, the more they earn the more that filters down the system to “fellow farmers” as we clearly see with store prices. This desire to make farming so divisive is at the heart of why British farming is always on the back foot.
 

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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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