beef price tracker

Cavanjack wrote: »

How do the lamb producer groups work? Or do they?

Ya they work well.all the farmers in the group add up what lambs they will sell to the group. One of the committee then negotiates eoth a few factories for the best price for that number of lambs. Their are 2 drop-off points for lambs from which the hauler collects from.
Once upon a time, the guys negotiating got a better price for themselves while the rest of the group got a low price. Tbe froup sort of broke up because of that and came back more tramsparent in the last few years.

The thing about lambs is there is a steady flow from about june to october and all lamb is the same.
Cattle is different with regatds to heifers,bullocks,bulls,aa and he bonuses etc.
I see no reason why it wouldnt work if all the farmers go behind it. Even if you only had 15 cattle for killing a year

Willfarman wrote: »

It is unfortunate really that after all the money plundered by the ifa from us no independent research was carried out to try and assert the profit margin that the processors /retailers have. The figure on prosesssing margins that kk man has from a 2 page article from ifj was an amateurish attempt and had no credible data available to the writer.

It could be more it could be less, but trying to assert what it is without a look at accounts would be as accurate as staring into a thick hedge for answers.

Should our crux be with the retailers?

In answer to your question, I actually think it is. Farmers are more or less banned from strike action at the gates of the plants.

Anyone going in to these shops can see the price per kilo on those packets (I know some cuts are more expensive than others) but even the manufacturing beef is way above what us farmers get.

Who2 wrote: »

What’s current cow prices

Dont know but factory agent said this week is crazy with dairy cows. 150 cows left in there yesterday evening. That's without what will go in tjis mirning. He said there's no end to it

Well that actually might work with sheep for a while anyway. i think there could be a lot to be said for going back to a traditional beef sytems in ireland. maybe a big reduction in beef farmers in counties louth,meath,dublin,wexford,kildare,laois,offaly and westmeath calving suckler cows and going back to just buying weanlings from the west and north west or stores and bringing to finish. this could reduce the number of beef cows and beef cattle in the country then perhaps the factories would begin to pay a better bonus and overall beef base for beef cattle over dairy cross. if your farm type allows i dont really see calving suckler cows as an efficent beef system in the above mentioned counties. the labour hours involved in suckler to beef must be at least twice that of weanling to beef or store to beef. so if you are counting your time per hour and put a price on it then you are making very little wages in suckler to beef. unless of course calving cows is your hobby then were on a different set up altogether

calved the last suckler cow myself last april, really loooking forward to no calving this year. slughtering cows out of the shed from january onwards, i have three first time calvers quiet black whiteheads but didnt keep my bull this year so ill kill these as well because there not in calf. strangely they will prob make more in the factory in spring than they would if i killed them at 28 months back the previous summer and i have a calf out of them anyway

Willfarman wrote:

all the farmers and their kids will get a free plastic bags, biros and que like starving Somalians for enough cheese to set a mousetrap!

Brilliant post. So accurate

Dickie10 wrote: »

Well that actually might work with sheep for a while anyway. i think there could be a lot to be said for going back to a traditional beef sytems in ireland. maybe a big reduction in beef farmers in counties louth,meath,dublin,wexford,kildare,laois,offaly and westmeath calving suckler cows and going back to just buying weanlings from the west and north west or stores and bringing to finish. this could reduce the number of beef cows and beef cattle in the country then perhaps the factories would begin to pay a better bonus and overall beef base for beef cattle over dairy cross. if your farm type allows i dont really see calving suckler cows as an efficent beef system in the above mentioned counties. the labour hours involved in suckler to beef must be at least twice that of weanling to beef or store to beef. so if you are counting your time per hour and put a price on it then you are making very little wages in suckler to beef. unless of course calving cows is your hobby then were on a different set up altogether

The 30 month, max carcass weight & number of move rules are factors
Up north west / north Mid sucklers are ideal due to the amount of rain we get

Bass Reeves wrote: »

I think farmers are too hard on themselves. We are price takers. There are certain things that could be done but as Martin Coughlan says there is no rules in the game and the three farm organisations have not the wit to fight it. Chaining trollys togeather in supermarkets that take 5% of our produce is immaterial and a useless tactic.

Maybe Will has hinted at something maybe the farm organisations should organize a protest outside the processors tents in the ploughing. But then Anna May would be upset and the minister could not get a photo shot with the the processors. But we all know they will not do anything like that because it would upset the status quo.

If meat processing was a lucrative business, there'd be more start ups, everything finds it's own level. whingeing on isn't going to achieve anything, the public won't tolerate an increase in beef/lamb price while pork and chicken price is at the level it is. Pig producers just seem to be expanding all the time even at present prices so maybe beef/lamb producers should be looking at their own efficiencies
The highlighted sentence is typical of the atitude out there, no matter what anyone tries there's the same reaction so why try anything.
Through life I always picked up the gauntlet on any issues that affected me (and a lot that didn't), I certainly didn't blame others for my own poor judgement.

Got €3.85 base for bullocks this day last year. I'm fairly sure they are pulling them as this is when most of the under 30 month cattle are coming fit. It's no surprise, same story this time of the year every year.

gerryirl wrote: »

yes same pattern the last few years. I killed cattle earlier on in the year got 4.10 base. I was feeding them over the winter. They came into big money but they had it well eatin. Grass cattle is the job but then the low prices in the backend like now make it usless. Its a no win situation really. I have a few stores to sell next week and Ill see how I get on before I decide what to do for the winter. This farming is worse than any drug

I suppose if the beef price was high now You couldn't buy stores.

wrangler wrote: »

If meat processing was a lucrative business, there'd be more start ups, everything finds it's own level. whingeing on isn't going to achieve anything, the public won't tolerate an increase in beef/lamb price while pork and chicken price is at the level it is. Pig producers just seem to be expanding all the time even at present prices so maybe beef/lamb producers should be looking at their own efficiencies
The highlighted sentence is typical of the atitude out there, no matter what anyone tries there's the same reaction so why try anything.
Through life I always picked up the gauntlet on any issues that affected me (and a lot that didn't), I certainly didn't blame others for my own poor judgement.

Pig numbers are cyclic, at present we are at or near the end of an expansion period. According to today's rag slaughtering of sows have began at a serious rate. Chicken is produced on a margin basis with farmer only supplying labour, housing and electricity. It is interesting that a project farm ran by Dawn Meat's group that was going to show us all how to run a proper traditional style suckler farm cannot make a profit even before it allows for land rental and labour costs::rolleyes: Are we surprised it will be interesting to see how the other model suckler farm ran by the ''Rag'' manages. So much for a suckler cow grant.

As a finisher I work on a margin if I receive less for my beef I pay less for stores. if my costs(feed, contractor etc) go up and beef prices fall I pay less for stores. This is why this year farmers with stores are getting slaughtered by mart prices. it has nothing to do with my judgment. However I see lads with stores and weanling's taking an awful hit and as well there costs this year are horrendous. Looking at beef prices in the short to medium term (from here to next February) my advice to any finisher is to look at the longterm. Doing the sums on some 350-450kg store there looks to be a decent margin in it even if prices next year are at a base of 3.8/kg or less. The only other viable option is to sell silage.

It is interesting as well that the producer groups set up by the Breed society's AA and HE are being ran into the ground by the processors. This is because they cannot negotiate a national base price for there producer's. Most mid sized finishers have bought into processor propaganda that producer groups will mean they will get less for there beef and the smaller lad will benefit. By this propaganda they keep this change in practice at bay. In a way trade unions are ahead of the game. They fight for a lift in the minimum wage on the basis that a rising tide lifts all boats. The theory behind this is the higher the minimum wage the more it forces up other wages. It can backfire at times but in general it seems to work.

Bass Reeves wrote: »

Pig numbers are cyclic, at present we are at or near the end of an expansion period. According to today's rag slaughtering of sows have began at a serious rate. Chicken is produced on a margin basis with farmer only supplying labour, housing and electricity. It is interesting that a project farm ran by Dawn Meat's group that was going to show us all how to run a proper traditional style suckler farm cannot make a profit even before it allows for land rental and labour costs::rolleyes: Are we surprised it will be interesting to see how the other model suckler farm ran by the ''Rag'' manages. So much for a suckler cow grant.

As a finisher I work on a margin if I receive less for my beef I pay less for stores. if my costs(feed, contractor etc) go up and beef prices fall I pay less for stores. This is why this year farmers with stores are getting slaughtered by mart prices. it has nothing to do with my judgment. However I see lads with stores and weanling's taking an awful hit and as well there costs this year are horrendous. Looking at beef prices in the short to medium term (from here to next February) my advice to any finisher is to look at the longterm. Doing the sums on some 350-450kg store there looks to be a decent margin in it even if prices next year are at a base of 3.8/kg or less. The only other viable option is to sell silage.

It is interesting as well that the producer groups set up by the Breed society's AA and HE are being ran into the ground by the processors. This is because they cannot negotiate a national base price for there producer's. Most mid sized finishers have bought into processor propaganda that producer groups will mean they will get less for there beef and the smaller lad will benefit. By this propaganda they keep this change in practice at bay. In a way trade unions are ahead of the game. They fight for a lift in the minimum wage on the basis that a rising tide lifts all boats. The theory behind this is the higher the minimum wage the more it forces up other wages. It can backfire at times but in general it seems to work.

Trade unions can withdraw services. Until farmers can do that it's pointless (and unfair) to hold unions up as an example of the holy grail.
All any organisatiion can do for farmers is lobby/hignlight the issues....it works well with the government/EU, waste of time with businesses

Perception and reality are 2 different things. Graph showing Irish R3 Steer prices versus European average for R3 bulls, over the last 2 years.
Source - Bord Bia.

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Perception and reality are 2 different things. Graph showing Irish R3 Steer prices versus European average for R3 bulls, over the last 2 years.
Source - Bord Bia.

Are they comparing apples and oranges there? Why aren't they comparing irish bulls v european bulls u16mths on the grid?