"Irish Grass Fed Beef" to be protected by EU

wrangler

Jjameson wrote: »

The effort there to lead the charge downwards on price is unreal you mean .. Their niche marketing man left not to long after the maith an fear takeover having done great work over the years for the place. Not a happy place to work in or have anything to do with.
But I appreciate your point nonetheless.

All they need is their margin, I was saying that today when selling my wool, they'll have their margin too, can't blame them really

Water John

No doubt their is room for a number of niche products. This scheme looks to be a broad sweep and extra marketing tool for the majority of Irish beef production.

Bass Reeves

K.G. wrote: »

nothing would make me use a continental breed on dairy cows.i try to buy the best hereford bull i can but thats as far as i ll go

If lads use decent bulls on cows then you have a decent animal. Growth rate is key. Killed a HEX last week his birthday was early April 2018. He was an R4= and weighted nearly 400 kgs. He scraped the R on his length and level of finish. I have another Hereford that is Feb 18 he about 500kgs at present.

Markcheese wrote: »

Yup .. it's just a label and marketing term ... The major factories are still going to be the ones processing and selling it .. I don't see it being any other way ... I suppose it's a way for bord bia to keep marketing this green / grass fed image , even as beef finishing moves more and more towards sheds and grain finishing ....
If your going to offer the consumer cheaper brazilian grain fed beef ,or dearer Irish grain fed beef which way do you think they'll jump ...

If it is done through a producer group where processors have to give a national base price it would make a huge difference, this is the killer with AA and HE schemes. When the AA group first started over 15 years ago base prices were agreed at national level every week. That forced processors often to pay a base price above local base price.

However over the years the processors took the scheme on licience and quoted only the loval base price

Birdnuts

Water John wrote: »

No doubt their is room for a number of niche products. This scheme looks to be a broad sweep and extra marketing tool for the majority of Irish beef production.

I think thats the problem - in the UK and France they seem to be better at targeting folk looking for authentic traditional product.

Water John

Birdnuts wrote: »

I think thats the problem - in the UK and France they seem to be better at targeting folk looking for authentic traditional product.

I think we all, incl farmers have fallen for the commodity production model.

Gawddawggonnit

I had a few Hex heifers factory fit recently. They were from a bunch of heifers that I used a locally sourced Hereford bull on. They were certainly easy calved. I couldn’t give the heifer calves away for free so we finished them. It took nearly 8 weeks to find a home for them when finished. I eventually got €2.75/kg (cull cow price) and was glad to get it. My point is, shouldn’t we be producing beef that the customer actually wants?
Fine breeding hex for the British market, but they’re not wanted on the continent. I won’t mention Brexit.
I can certainly say that the French consumer is well switched on to PGIs etc. They know that it should add provenance to the beef. Before the Irish angus scandal, the second choice beef available was always Irish. Irish beef is not popular anymore and in fact, I don’t even see it mentioned.
Surely a PGI would add some status and class to Irish beef and begin to recoup the name of Irish beef once again. If you’re going to promote something it should be done with the top quality product. There are plenty suckler farmers producing top class beef from proper beef breeds. That’s the beef to label as exclusive...not the shyte from xbred herds that the farmers best effort is ‘I bought a Hereford bull, I’m doing no more’...

Put your best foot forward, market it accordingly, and build up the status of Irish beef to the level it belongs. PGIs are a good tool for doing precisely that.

yosemitesam1

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

I had a few Hex heifers factory fit recently. They were from a bunch of heifers that I used a locally sourced Hereford bull on. They were certainly easy calved. I couldn’t give the heifer calves away for free so we finished them. It took nearly 8 weeks to find a home for them when finished. I eventually got €2.75/kg (cull cow price) and was glad to get it. My point is, shouldn’t we be producing beef that the customer actually wants?
Fine breeding hex for the British market, but they’re not wanted on the continent. I won’t mention Brexit.
I can certainly say that the French consumer is well switched on to PGIs etc. They know that it should add provenance to the beef. Before the Irish angus scandal, the second choice beef available was always Irish. Irish beef is not popular anymore and in fact, I don’t even see it mentioned.
Surely a PGI would add some status and class to Irish beef and begin to recoup the name of Irish beef once again. If you’re going to promote something it should be done with the top quality product. There are plenty suckler farmers producing top class beef from proper beef breeds. That’s the beef to label as exclusive...not the shyte from xbred herds that the farmers best effort is ‘I bought a Hereford bull, I’m doing no more’...

Put your best foot forward, market it accordingly, and build up the status of Irish beef to the level it belongs. PGIs are a good tool for doing precisely that.

Are there any beef pgis in France? What sort of conditions around it if so?

What would the French consumer think if they found out "grass fed" meant that a third of the animals energy intake could be from grain?

Gawddawggonnit

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

Are there any beef pgis in France? What sort of conditions around it if so?

What would the French consumer think if they found out "grass fed" meant that a third of the animals energy intake could be from grain?

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_AOC_agroalimentaires_fran%C3%A7aises

The dairy herd here is considered to be largely grass fed even though they’ve only grazed for 93 days yet this year.
Gmo feed would be the major stumbling block. The consumer is brainwashed into thinking that gmo is the devil itself. That’s an easy fix.

jntsnk

What bonus are they giving for this

Panch18

The irony of this is that beef from "proper beef breeds" (as our french correspondent likes to call them) is much more likely to use considerably more meal in it's lifetime, is much more likely to going to, and killed from, a feedlot, is much more likely to spend less of its time at grass and in general is going to be going against everything that a "grass fed Beef" animal should be doing and how it should be raised.

But i suppose that doesn't matter once its a "proper beef breed"

God some people spout some rubbish when given a platform

K.G.

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

I had a few Hex heifers factory fit recently. They were from a bunch of heifers that I used a locally sourced Hereford bull on. They were certainly easy calved. I couldn’t give the heifer calves away for free so we finished them. It took nearly 8 weeks to find a home for them when finished. I eventually got €2.75/kg (cull cow price) and was glad to get it. My point is, shouldn’t we be producing beef that the customer actually wants?
Fine breeding hex for the British market, but they’re not wanted on the continent. I won’t mention Brexit.
I can certainly say that the French consumer is well switched on to PGIs etc. They know that it should add provenance to the beef. Before the Irish angus scandal, the second choice beef available was always Irish. Irish beef is not popular anymore and in fact, I don’t even see it mentioned.
Surely a PGI would add some status and class to Irish beef and begin to recoup the name of Irish beef once again. If you’re going to promote something it should be done with the top quality product. There are plenty suckler farmers producing top class beef from proper beef breeds. That’s the beef to label as exclusive...not the shyte from xbred herds that the farmers best effort is ‘I bought a Hereford bull, I’m doing no more’...

Put your best foot forward, market it accordingly, and build up the status of Irish beef to the level it belongs. PGIs are a good tool for doing precisely that.

well i m breeding what my market wants.the people that buy our calves are local small scale dry stock farmers that like the hereford because they very liquid,any time money or feed is tight they can load them up get their money in the mart.continental calves have too much money and risk for them fr s can only be sold at certain times.over the years i have seen the herefords heifers fluxuate from being the worst to the best selling calves. by the way quality cattle is about quanity of meat than better quality meat

Hard Knocks

K.G. wrote: »

well i m breeding what my market wants.the people that buy our calves are local small scale dry stock farmers that like the hereford because they very liquid,any time money or feed is tight they can load them up get their money in the mart.continental calves have too much money and risk for them fr s can only be sold at certain times.over the years i have seen the herefords heifers fluxuate from being the worst to the best selling calves. by the way quality cattle is about quanity of meat than better quality meat

You must be breeding good stock
Sadly there are allot of yearling AAX & HEX cattle on the best of grass that have no size and pointy backs while suckler (even good dairy beef) calves of same age are in great style
These are the issue

maestroamado

Markcheese wrote: »

I was on holiday in Argentina years ago , the beef was good .. and they really appreciate the flavour, saw plenty of extremely free range ,tame ,cattle eating grass on ranch type settings , and feed n tillage areas ,

I read an article on htis topic a few years ago, it sais farm practices were pretty similiar in Ireland and Argentina as climate pretty similiar, it also mentioned New Zeland.

Gawddawggonnit

Panch18 wrote: »

The irony of this is that beef from "proper beef breeds" (as our french correspondent likes to call them) is much more likely to use considerably more meal in it's lifetime, is much more likely to going to, and killed from, a feedlot, is much more likely to spend less of its time at grass and in general is going to be going against everything that a "grass fed Beef" animal should be doing and how it should be raised.

But i suppose that doesn't once its a "proper beef breed"

God some people spout some rubbish when given a platform

Behave like a good lad...

wrangler

Apparently the factories will have the last say as to whether it's grass fed or not based on the colour of the meat.
It's a pity there's not a more scientific method of testing it, there'll be war over one persons opinion.
Farmers will be looking for electronic colour grading

Oh wait.....:rolleyes:

Gawddawggonnit

jntsnk wrote: »

What bonus are they giving for this

I’ve no idea. I’ve been producing ‘industrial beef’ from dairy herds. Always R grade with the very odd U grade. Appellation d’origine contrôlée (PGI) is strictly for those designated areas. I’m not in those areas.

Gawddawggonnit

Champagne.
Champagne is PGI. Land in the Champagne region is extremely expensive. Vouvray region produces sparkling wine that is of high quality also, but never makes the same money.

Maybe the PGI would be better coming from west of the Shannon where there’s some quality suckler herds. The word Connemara has huge resonance with the French to boot.

Panch18

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Behave like a good lad...

ahh you're full of it

maestroamado

wrangler wrote: »

Apparently the factories will have the last say as to whether it's grass fed or not based on the colour of the meat.
It's a pity there's not a more scientific method of testing it, there'll be war over one persons opinion.
Farmers will be looking for electronic colour grading

Oh wait.....:rolleyes:

Afew years ago a farmer told me he got some certification as to his farming practices and related to quality of meat animals would produce. I did not understand any of it.
I wonder will farmers have to have this status to avail of this likely premiun payment for products.
I be all for it if it helps farmers...

Say my name

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

. The word Connemara has huge resonance with the French to boot.

I'd hope so.

Sure they've been eating those for years now..

endainoz

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Champagne.
Champagne is PGI. Land in the Champagne region is extremely expensive. Vouvray region produces sparkling wine that is of high quality also, but never makes the same money.

Maybe the PGI would be better coming from west of the Shannon where there’s some quality suckler herds. The word Connemara has huge resonance with the French to boot.

All for the idea of west of the Shannon, plenty of guys in the burren region using winterage as well. Surely that kind of animal would be easy to market.

Muahahaha

maestroamado wrote: »

I read an article on htis topic a few years ago, it sais farm practices were pretty similiar in Ireland and Argentina as climate pretty similiar, it also mentioned New Zeland.

Have been in Argentina twice and the Pampas region there is renowned for its fertile land for beef production. They eat the most meat per capita in the world so take their meat very seriously there. There is some world class steakhouses in Buenos Aires selling top quality produce.

A Sunday dinner for the family in Argentina typically involves a six or seven course BBQ feast with every single course being meat. They start with offal, sweetbreads (glands from the cows neck I believe) are usually the first course and then it progresses through various cuts all the way up to rib eye and fillet steaks. Patagonian lamb can also feature. Had some absolutely amazing meals there along with lots of bouts of the meat sweats, would highly recommend it.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Muahahaha wrote: »

Have been in Argentina twice and the Pampas region there is renowned for its fertile land for beef production. They eat the most meat per capita in the world so take their meat very seriously there. There is some world class steakhouses in Buenos Aires selling top quality produce.

A Sunday dinner for the family in Argentina typically involves a six or seven course BBQ feast with every single course being meat. They start with offal, sweetbreads (glands from the cows neck I believe) are usually the first course and then it progresses through various cuts all the way up to rib eye and fillet steaks. Patagonian lamb can also feature. Had some absolutely amazing meals there along with lots of bouts of the meat sweats, would highly recommend it.

Sweetbreads would be the thymus and pancreas glands, I think.

Muahahaha

yeah I think the thymus gland is somewhere along the cows neck, they are common enough on menus in Argentina. They're not great to look at as they look like mini brains but they taste gorgeous off a bbq.

maestroamado

Muahahaha wrote: »

yeah I think the thymus gland is somewhere along the cows neck, they are common enough on menus in Argentina. They're not great to look at as they look like mini brains but they taste gorgeous off a bbq.

There seems to be a few people on here with first hand experience of Argentina and beef etc.
Is our beef very mich superior? or is it we think that it is.
I expect the animal breeds be different so this likely a factor.

yosemitesam1

maestroamado wrote: »

There seems to be a few people on here with first hand experience of Argentina and beef etc.
Is our beef very mich superior? or is it we think that it is.
I expect the animal breeds be different so this likely a factor.

Most Argentinian beef would be Angus or Hereford, same for Paraguay etc. Brazilian would have much more of a zebu influence

coolshannagh28

maestroamado wrote: »

There seems to be a few people on here with first hand experience of Argentina and beef etc.
Is our beef very mich superior? or is it we think that it is.
I expect the animal breeds be different so this likely a factor.

We think it is , I have eaten a good few Argentinian steaks and they range from great to sublime , generally cooked on wood fires and I imagine grass fed Angus or Hereford so every chance of being top quality.

I says

Check this out on Agriland - Fears PGI could prevent NI farmers from using term ‘Irish grass-fed beef’


Brexit will sort that out me thinks.

alps

I says wrote: »

Check this out on Agriland - Fears PGI could prevent NI farmers from using term ‘Irish grass-fed beef’


Brexit will sort that out me thinks.

Only that the affordable "Irish Grass Fed Beef" on the shelf, will be from the North..

G-Man

PGI for grass-fed has been passed out in Europe. The better pgi there is Heumilch (milk) or Heurind (meat). Its a rejection of all silage and a return to fresh grass and hay only. Some of this is rejection of maize silage but the latest research shows that milk from hay fed cows is significantly better than silage( grass or Maize ) fed cows.

Their PGI has significant environmental benefits - support of natural herbal rich pastures and health benefits for the animal and tastier produce - these are all things that consumers care about. The European consumer in CH, FR, DE, AT and IT has been educated that silage is bad, and only fresh grass and dried hay is good.

While the image of Ireland is very good abroad, this Irish PGI is more like green washing in comparison.

You ca google for Heumilch but you are likely to have eyes opened with more progressive features such as quality signs for farms that do not dehorm, ad even practice natural weaning ad leaving calves with dairy cows.