Moving goalposts

Grueller

I see on the front of the journal the factories are changing the goalposts again. They wanted smaller carcasses and now they aren't happy that they need to pay extra labour to kill the extra cattle to make up the tonnage of meat. They also speculate that this dairy bred beef is not good enough for certain niche markets.
They are some shysters. All the dairy men will be heading to sucklers shortly!!!!!!!!

kevthegaff

A relative, high up in the department was saying recently about the view across the country with cows fenced into small paddocks with pigtail fencing and less and less ditches. Also that changes should be made to encourage environmental practices. I couldn't hold back after teagasc, processors and department pushing 2020 harvest and eliminating tillage, mix farming. Gave him a right going over, department/eu seem to be moving goalposts every year

kk.man

It's the match of them they just never see the bigger picture.
IF A be warned the factories will want to change the grid price structure...dont sell us out like the last time! They can't make changes to the grid without agreement. This will be time to get concession.

Bullocks

Grueller wrote: »

I see on the front of the journal the factories are changing the goalposts again. They wanted smaller carcasses and now they aren't happy that they need to pay extra labour to kill the extra cattle to make up the tonnage of meat. They also speculate that this dairy bred beef is not good enough for certain niche markets.
They are some shysters. All the dairy men will be heading to sucklers shortly!!!!!!!!

Don't they want them smaller cuts cos the shoppers wont pay for the bigger ones ?
Did they give labour figures for the extra labour going into the smaller cuts/ extra carcasses ?
Funny enough they wouldn't be inclined to pay the farmer extra for carrying more head of smaller stock to give them the same amount of beef we could've bred from bigger/ older stock
Whats wrong with the dairy bred meat ? They dont pay us niche prices to supply niche markets so **** them !
At least the gee bags are dependable , if cows were killing out into gold nuggets the factories and Bord Bia would claim gold was a hard sell :rolleyes:

Base price

The last time I attended the National Ploughing Championships (2016) the Bord Bia stand actively promoted beef from Friesian carcasses. The steak sizes suited Irish and UK supermarket's in pre-packed trays and that is what the factories wanted.

patsy_mccabe

The reality is the factories don't want all beef cross from the dairy herd. Meat yield is way behind the suckler cattle. The suckler herd is falling in numbers and it's a trend that is unlikely to stop, untill suckler farmers are rewarded fairly for meat yields.
I can see the grid getting readjusted to favour the U and E grades.

tractorporn

patsy_mccabe wrote:

The reality is the factories don't want all beef cross from the dairy herd. Meat yield is way behind the suckler cattle. The suckler herd is falling in numbers and it's a trend that is unlikely to stop, untill suckler farmers are rewarded fairly for meat yields. I can see the grid getting readjusted to favour the U and E grades.

Well the farmers in fairness have responded to what the factories have been telling them. Penalties on large carcass's and constant chat about not being able to sell large cuts have ment that people have produced cattle to what they thought was the spec. Surprise surprise when the farmer meets that spec the factory claims that it's no longer efficient to butcher these animals and longs for a time when cattle were bigger. My heart bleeds for the poor processor.

blue5000

Feck, note to self, should have bought a charley bull before the rush started:(

Sure if I did by the time his calves came on stream they'd want Angus cattle again

Problem solved, do a little bit of both,



Fiston heifer born this year with the little black pollies in the background.:cool:

DJ98

A little bit irrelevant but am just wondering do factories (owned by larry goodman) close for a time after christmas or would this effect the supply of meat in ireland and abroad?

Willfarman

This was lazy populist journalism. They wouldn't dare question the infallibility of the grading machines. The greater tonnage of beef has been vastly cheapened by the grid. Top shelf bord bia approved Prime tender young p+ o- o= beef is being bought at manufacturing cow price.
Increased processing costs my hairy hole. The fifth quarter is all sold. Where exactly did this nugget of information on operational costs come from the hugely secretive industry? The vast vast majority of dairy cows are still big robust middle of the road types.

Siamsa Sessions

kevthegaff wrote: »

A relative, high up in the department was saying recently about the view across the country with cows fenced into small paddocks with pigtail fencing and less and less ditches. Also that changes should be made to encourage environmental practices. I couldn't hold back after teagasc, processors and department pushing 2020 harvest and eliminating tillage, mix farming. Gave him a right going over, department/eu seem to be moving goalposts every year

Tis the Dept keep changing more than any changes coming from Brussels. The rate of change at EU level can be seen in how often CAP changes. For better or worse, they don’t chop and change overnight. The Dept here seem to constantly change their minds though. Says more about how little they have to do and how much time they have on their hands than anything else.

Willfarman

John Heney.. incidentally my favourite writer on the subject of beef in any publication.. I have to commend him again on a marvellous piece in today's farming independent.