- Location
- Ledbury, Herefordshire
What do you mean?
I was agreeing with you - I can't see the arable boys sacrificing efficiency/yield for 'nice looking ears of corn' can you?
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What do you mean?
EBV's aside, I doubt that the correct conclusion to draw from this account is that 'farmers need to get more efficient' - what has happened is that the profits have over the intervening years moved upstream into the retailer chain; suggesting farmers become even more efficient is just encouraging the continuation of this trend.
Different conclusions need to be drawn, perhaps?
Good chat about this on twitter last night. Not sure if anyone was involved?
I think Walter makes a really good point - just who are you getting mor efficient for? The genetic improvements in pigs have certainly not benefited pig farmers only processors and supermarkets, allowing them to make greater margins. at the farmers expense.
If cattle and sheep production goes the same way as pigs then there really isn't a future in it in this country
Yeh it takes some keeping up with! Raised some interesting points about eating quality thoughSaw some of it. Find it harder to follow a debate on there than here so didnt chip in. It got some other guys on friday night going too.
Sheep/beef farmers need to get more efficient and if figures help us then lets use them as another tool.
I wouldn't want it to get as overdone as the pig industry though, in my experience standard supermarket pork is barely edible.
Ah, but look how efficiently they produce the pork, isn't that someting to aspire to?
That's the beauty of lamb it tastes better when fattened off grazed grass which just happens by coincidence to also be the cheapest way of doing it..
Quite, and that is Lambs USP isn't it? I would want to distance myself as far away as possible from pork if I were in sheep.
That doesn't mean you can't strive to improve your feed conversion rate. I record the weights of my lambs at the moment they are a bit of mixed bunch and the growth rates vary quite widely. By recording over a long period of time I hope to raise the average to closer the best performers.
I wouldn't want the quality to drop by achieving this but under the current grading system you are not penalised for poor quality meat.
EBV's aside, I doubt that the correct conclusion to draw from this account is that 'farmers need to get more efficient' - what has happened is that the profits have over the intervening years moved upstream into the retailer chain; suggesting farmers become even more efficient is just encouraging the continuation of this trend.
Different conclusions need to be drawn, perhaps?
You're sounding awfully like a pig producer now2 opposing options aren't there?
1 - get efficient and produce lamb and beef cheap enough to keep it affordable for the householder (avoiding the word housewife! )
2 - everybody cut production and make it scarce, so driving the price up, but making red meat a luxury product.
Who votes for option 2? - and is prepared both cut their numbers, and promise not to keep more when the price goes up?
Lamb is already a luxury item, isn't it? Whose appeal is restricted to the middle classes, for whom it is a relatively price-inelastic purchase, and to the export trade which is more price-sensitive. Beef is, perhaps, less so, but it's still a good-value product and has a wider appeal than lamb (how many sheep farmers, for instance, don't even like lamb?).2 opposing options aren't there?
1 - get efficient and produce lamb and beef cheap enough to keep it affordable for the householder (avoiding the word housewife! )
2 - everybody cut production and make it scarce, so driving the price up, but making red meat a luxury product.
Who votes for option 2? - and is prepared both cut their numbers, and promise not to keep more when the price goes up?