Beef / Lamb & Pig Price Tracker

Estate fencing.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Exactly. Size of site and numbers I guess. Same as farming, they have to justify the capital input. Same reason a guy with 100 ewes doesn’t have a mobile handling set up with all the bells and whistles, at least not paid for but the sheep enterprise
Biggest plant in the country (I think) told me that they couldn’t do it on the line. But probably better to get people to do them themselves and stave the labor.
 

Bill the Bass

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cumbria
You're not the only one.

If ever the beef and sheep job ever looks like it's falling into the control of too few hands, the events of late 2021 should be dragged up and used to beat everybody about the head with, until it gets re-fragmented into the hands of thousands of producers, hundreds of markets and dozens and dozens of slaughterhouses.

There's a big lesson to be learnt from how the pig job is structured.
We went out of pigs in 2001 (albeit forcibly), there hasn’t been a second passed when I have missed pig farming. I miss keeping pigs but the whole sector just seems to lurch from one disaster to another invariably created by governments poorly thought out legislation or the greed of big business.

if beef and sheep go the same way I’m out. The whole Composite breeding thing with beef and sheep is the thin end of the wedge imho.
 
We went out of pigs in 2001 (albeit forcibly), there hasn’t been a second passed when I have missed pig farming. I miss keeping pigs but the whole sector just seems to lurch from one disaster to another invariably created by governments poorly thought out legislation or the greed of big business.

if beef and sheep go the same way I’m out. The whole Composite breeding thing with beef and sheep is the thin end of the wedge imho.
The big boys seem to do well out of pigs though? The ones that survive that is
 

yellowbelly

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
N.Lincs
We went out of pigs in 2001 (albeit forcibly), there hasn’t been a second passed when I have missed pig farming. I miss keeping pigs but the whole sector just seems to lurch from one disaster to another invariably created by governments poorly thought out legislation or the greed of big business.

if beef and sheep go the same way I’m out. The whole Composite breeding thing with beef and sheep is the thin end of the wedge imho.
The big boys seem to do well out of pigs though? The ones that survive that is
I think it's called 'vertical integration' by those who understand all that fancy jargon.

Basically, the big firms at the top, (processors, feed companies, breed companies and the like) call all the shots while the little guys do all the work and take all the risk.
The money tends to float up to them at the top while all the sh!t (both physical amd metaphorical) ends up at the bottom.

As I said before, the 'pig model' needs to be avoided at all costs by the beef and sheep industry.
 

Mc115reed

Member
Livestock Farmer
You opening a petting zoo like?
Definatly not 😂 but I can’t say Iv ever had a problem selling my lambs, Iv always hit market average or slightly over… buyers will take anything in any condition even if it’s been dropped in a slurry lagoon if they want lambs but if they’ve got a full load or too many already then they’ll pick any fault they can not too buy them I couldn’t give a f**k what buyers want quite frankly, I produce what I produce in a system that suits me and if I can’t find a buyer for them at my marker I’ll go another marker that does have a buyer too suit my system …… I like too be in control of my product not bowing down too the processing plants that couldn’t give a sh!t about me
 
I think it's called 'vertical integration' by those who understand all that fancy jargon.

Basically, the big firms at the top, (processors, feed companies, breed companies and the like) call all the shots while the little guys do all the work and take all the risk.
The money tends to float up to them at the top while all the sh!t (both physical amd metaphorical) ends up at the bottom.

As I said before, the 'pig model' needs to be avoided at all costs by the beef and sheep industry.
Yes I often think it would end up bad if that happened. Pigs have been looked upon by banks as a preferably more viable option compared to cattle and sheep.
 

Gedd

Member
Livestock Farmer
We wouldn’t dream selling sheep straight off our turnips, they look crap imo if selling live. Couple of weeks in a shed and they look different again.
We all used to sell straight off the turnips i can remember the lambs rattling as they ran we all survived eating them everyone is to clinicly clean now a days everything has to be wiped with disinfectant
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
We all used to sell straight off the turnips i can remember the lambs rattling as they ran we all survived eating them everyone is to clinicly clean now a days everything has to be wiped with disinfectant

Yet even with belly clipping, the shelf life of our lamb is still a hell of a lot shorter than our competition from NZ. Expect cleanliness requirements to get tighter yet.
 

Estate fencing.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Yet even with belly clipping, the shelf life of our lamb is still a hell of a lot shorter than our competition from NZ. Expect cleanliness requirements to get tighter yet.
Don’t they either full shear or shower all lambs before killing in NZ? This is why the shelf life is better than ours I was told.
 
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Definatly not 😂 but I can’t say Iv ever had a problem selling my lambs, Iv always hit market average or slightly over… buyers will take anything in any condition even if it’s been dropped in a slurry lagoon if they want lambs but if they’ve got a full load or too many already then they’ll pick any fault they can not too buy them I couldn’t give a f**k what buyers want quite frankly, I produce what I produce in a system that suits me and if I can’t find a buyer for them at my marker I’ll go another marker that does have a buyer too suit my system …… I like too be in control of my product not bowing down too the processing plants that couldn’t give a sh!t about me
Sounds a bit retarded to me. I don’t belly out but if they were blathered off turnips I wouldn’t be offended to have to belly them. They do have to be fit to eat at end of the day.
 

yellowbelly

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
N.Lincs
Pigs have been looked upon by banks as a preferably more viable option compared to cattle and sheep.
'Cos it's easier to do forward budgets with 'factory farmed' pigs and chickens - it's all about how much feed in produces how much pork/ chicken nuggets out.
Whereas, beef and sheep are produced in all sorts of different systems that banks find it much harder to crunch the numbers for.
 

Mc115reed

Member
Livestock Farmer
Sounds a bit retarded to me. I don’t belly out but if they were blathered off turnips I wouldn’t be offended to have to belly them. They do have to be fit to eat at end of the day.
There’s plenty I see at market look a lot worse and nowhere near fit too eat in my opinion that seem too sell well enough.. most lambs come off wagons looking like they’ve had a slurry bath if they’ve been on the bottom deck, bit of mud off turnips won’t make much else difference
 

goodevans

Member
There’s plenty I see at market look a lot worse and nowhere near fit too eat in my opinion that seem too sell well enough.. most lambs come off wagons looking like they’ve had a slurry bath if they’ve been on the bottom deck, bit of mud off turnips won’t make much else difference
Have you never thought that they may have sold even better if presented in a better fashion,
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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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