Beef price tracker 2

tanko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123023937#Comment_123023937

It’s good to hear the thoughts of someone living in the real world giving their opinion on what’s it’s like trying to make money out of those cattle instead of the endless lies and bullshit figures that some lads have a terrible habit of spouting over and over and over and over again.

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123035657#Comment_123035657

Yes that's my theory too regarding the grading and the fat scores. The most pressure for profit in the factories are on the production and procurement managers. The rest do their jobs. Probably only one in charge of those machines.

Robson99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123035657#Comment_123035657

Bass… to fiddle the weights only the Procurement manager needed to know about it…the weight the lady gave him doesn't mean its the weight old John sitting at home by the fire gets when the chq comes out to him. They know the farmers to target with all aspects of skullduggery. No one is going to argue over 5/10 kgs of carcass weight

morphy87

one hauler that I use, I sometimes ask him to weigh the lorry before he unloads, he does it but he told me the factory doesn’t like it,

Anto_Meath

I worked in a meat factory years ago for summer work. The reality is they would try any game in the book to fiddle a few euro. But they were very protective about not messing with weights for two reasons 1 they could be checked at anytime by weights & measures as it was called then. The second thing was their reputation, they know if word goes out the X factory was messing with the weights then no one would bring animals there.

As an Agricultural Officer say to me one day "No straight business person every made a successful meat factory owner".

There are loads of way they can fiddle the farmer & the customer but they wouldn't do it on something as easy checked as weights.

massey 265

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123035078#Comment_123035078

Havin a bit of bother with this boards link as it jumping all over the place.I worked for one of the big three that time and they woudnt entertain any carcasses in chill for period required for dry aged beef.Proper dry aged beef is a specialised product requiring a high mark up due to weight loss ,chill cost etc.The best way to tenderise a beer carcass is to hip hang it by the aitch bone on hind quarter.This takes the strain away from the tendons ,ligaments in the meat and hughly improves eating quality.This method is also not favoured by beef factories as it requires more chill space and their in the game of get the beef out the door as fast as possible.

massey 265

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123035657#Comment_123035657

No not working there now.The whole beef game changed when the vacume packing system came in .This meant that the beef that was boned out could be vacume packed in various cuts on the factory floor ,boxed and delivered to supermarket shelves in a short timeframe .Before this most beef was sold in carcass form and shipped out in refridgerated containers.These same containers now contain boxed vac packed cuts of beef ready for the super market shelf.This is when the real money started been made by the beef factories.Get the cattle in,boned out ,vac packed and sold all in less than a week.Its a numbers game.Dry aged beef is a niche market like organic.

Cavanjack

Had two agents onto me today wishing me a happy new year and enquiring for my well being. Then of course they asked had I anything ready to kill.
It’s a great sign to see them ringing. €6 flat price for continental bulls without any haggling. I’ve nothing fit yet so but I’d say there is plenty more to be got.

Sheep breeder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123036616#Comment_123036616

Agree again what your saying, for some customers they would hang on the H bone for tenderness and biggest problem was fear of falling off the hook and as you say requiring more room, the game changed from the carcass form to vac pac and in recent times to packing cuts and joints for butcher, hotel, restaurant trade is a big part with very few butchers killing and more and only buying in packs of what they sell each week and the same for the Uk trade.

tanko

I watched a mart in the north the other day, good quality heavy bullocks were making £3-£3.10/kg. The best bullocks which were as good as you’d see were making £3.30/kg which is almost €4/kg liveweight, it just goes to show what they can pay for them and still make plenty of money.

mr.stonewall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123039076#Comment_123039076

Great to see them caring as always.

massey 265

By the way,did anyone on here ever query where or what do the factories do with the t.b. reactor cattle that they kill ?

Cavanjack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123040139#Comment_123040139

As far as I know they go up the line the same as everything else only the lungs are removed. the lads on here that worked in factories will confirm or correct me.

green daries

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123040139#Comment_123040139

They entertain food chain same as everything else the meat is perfect and won't cause any issues

epfff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123041234#Comment_123041234

That's my understanding too

I got 520 for p grade cows this week. That is a new record for me anyway. Thank you Larry!

Arm Wax

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042037#Comment_123042037

where was that as i have 15 to go

kk.man

See foot and mouth is in Germany.

epfff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042499#Comment_123042499

Can't see it effecting things unless it starts to spread.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042438#Comment_123042438

Abp. Munster. There all the same go.

Sheep breeder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123041234#Comment_123041234

TB reactors are killed last and separately from clean cattle. The belly table is slowed down for checking and harvesting of samples,

Pinsnbushings

Sit or twist? Is this a top or new normal?

grass10

Hopefully lads are telling the factories to get lost with any mention of grid payment at the moment mart prices are a long way above grid, if the farm orgs were any good they should be redesigning the grid payment system when their is strong demand for cattle and getting the factories to agree to a more fair system eg 12 cent between o+ and r- is ridiculous, 6 cent between r- and r+ totally wrong

Cavanjack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042874#Comment_123042874

I wrote the same thing 2 or 3 days ago but it didn’t suit bass and a few others that keep bad cattle so the conversation ended fairly quickly 🤣

grass10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123043064#Comment_123043064

Most farmers have no understanding of the grid payment system and just go along with it the farm orgs may or may not be at the same level for example p grades are minus 30 on the grid but the factories are paying approx 20 to 30 cent above this price right now for p grades they must be laughing at lads agreeing to sell on the grid

Sheep breeder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042874#Comment_123042874

When the grid was done it was to suit the Fr bullock and not the R grade bullock, which what should have been done to keep better cattle paid for correctly and to push to produce better cattle,

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042874#Comment_123042874

Blame the IFA, Teagasc and the rag for negotiating the grid. The processors wanted R= as the base, the farming Intelligencia wanted R-. So we ended up with a 12c penalty on O+ 12c off R- where a lot of better quality traditional better breed cattle sit and 6c from R- to R+. They allowed a sneaky O=4= 6c penalty as well that follows these cattle down the grid as well, hard on very finished plain heifers especially in May and June off grass when winter white fat is still calibrated on the grid.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123043064#Comment_123043064

He is complaining about a section of the grid. You want a structural restructuring of grid sub section paumefro. 6-10c a totally different beast. You want the O+ 10c off the base,, O= -20c, O- -30c, P+-40c, P=-50c. An O=4= AA heifer would be 30c off the base before bonuses. You also have to remember P+ get no 20 QA and O- only get 12c. Fs 4+ animals do not get QA either and 2+ cattle penalised where R grade or better do not.

People need to understand the grid before they start to negotiate change to it.

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123043155#Comment_123043155

The grid was changed after the last strike, the previous one was better for plain cattle imo.

morphy87

The grid benefited no one only the factory’s, this is very easily seen when you get the opportunity to sell your cattle flat priced, I got over €60 a head more this year going flat than the grid, all fresians, and this was also the case a few years ago when I had all dairy x continentals

Anto_Meath

@morphy87 100% correct, the grid and all its sub divisions are just a way for the factories to extract as much as possible while paying as little as possible. The increment should be 20 cent and the = grade done away with. So R- is the base. The fat grading should only be + or - also. It is frustrating that you send a load of similar cattle to a factory, say O= to R=, and you end up with at least 5 different payment rates.