NEWS

Sell cattle as stores on mainland says NBA
By Staff Reporter

BEEF cattle bred in Northern Ireland will earn more money for their owners if they are offered as heavy stores to British feeders instead of being sold to local factories as slaughter cattle.
This is the view of the National Beef Association’s Northern Ireland chairman Oisin Murnion, who is dismayed by the 252p per kg average paid locally for R4 classification fat cattle compared with around 285p in northern England and about 294p in Scotland.
He sees the sale of more forward store cattle in mainland markets as the best way of sidestepping unnecessarily low factory prices and putting more money into farmers' bank accounts.
And he insists that the approximately 45p per deadweight kilo, or £130-£140 per head, income difference between the value of similar quality slaughter cattle presented in Northern Ireland and those offered elsewhere in the UK has become too great to ignore.
“Older store cattle are currently dearer by an average of £40-£60 a head on a cross-Britain basis this year compared with last and it is expected that mainland finishers, especially those with specialist feed lots which aim to turn out slaughter cattle within 12-14 weeks, will soon be struggling to maintain throughput because suitable British stock will be in even shorter supply," he said.
“Beef farmers in Northern Ireland should take advantage of this and immediately divert heavy stores to selected auction sales in the north of England and the Scottish Borders instead of taking the animals to slaughter weight in Northern Ireland itself.”

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October 9th 2009
October 2nd 2009