"Irish Grass Fed Beef" to be protected by EU

wrangler wrote: »

Will it not be the same as all the niche markets, ie organic, hereford, angus, etc, in that the usual beef barons will be processing and marketing.
I know Organic lamb has had it's ups and downs and ICM have put huge effort into marketing it, yet not every lamb gets the bonuses

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 ...

Love to see a label for Traditional breeds raised on traditional mixed swards and winter fed Hay,oats, forage crops etc.. I beleive there is already a pilot scheme running on Inishowen using the likes of Dexters to re-create extensive upland habitat. Currently only selling privatly but one chap I know who has tried it says it has the most remarkable flavour and texture.

PS: Now that I think of it something similar is being considered for Hen Harrier areas by DAFM/NPWS

Jjameson wrote: »

As it is the bord bia label is a meaningless guaranteed Irish slogan, and they bandy the term grass fed in their lazy inept marketing when there are no parameters whatsoever regarding the volume of concentrates or the ingredients of concentrates and their origin. (Waters are even murky on the Irish slogan this in respect to processing) adhering to no more standard than is required by the dept of agriculture but have set up themselves up as a regulatory body mirroring dept inspections on farms. The farmers didn’t damage the reputation of Irish beef. Dirty Larry did that but they are lucky to have his participation as without it they are gone, and as such the level of inspection at processor level along with the gift of a market control measure “an animals 30month birthday” along with the bonuses.
So yes I agree that’s another days work.

But in terms of securing top shelf status for Irish beef in the uk to compete with red tractor label this is positive in my view.

Someone is selling 35000 cattle/week, beef plan were claiming they were the new uthopia selling 1500 whenever the ship bothered to appear, don't ever discount the job off moving 35000 cattle/week until you've tried it yourself.
Our lamb group has been through our lamb factory many times and the effort that goes into moving stuff is unreal

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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...

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 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..

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

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.

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.

I think it’s a load of bollox - grass fed beef isn’t actually grass fed, it’s ‘mostly’ grass fed...

We give out about the consumer being duped with situations where something is produced in a different country, packaged in Ireland and sold as Irish...
That’s bad...

But somehow it’s ok to do this grass fed beef craic, even though we know it’s not really true - but cos it suits us it’s grand...

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

I think it’s a load of bollox - grass fed beef isn’t actually grass fed, it’s ‘mostly’ grass fed...

We give out about the consumer being duped with situations where something is produced in a different country, packaged in Ireland and sold as Irish...
That’s bad...

But somehow it’s ok to do this grass fed beef craic, even though we know it’s not really true - but cos it suits us it’s grand...

Agreed, it is a load of bollocks, if the animal thrives whatever it's fed the meat will be good
I'm sure that most people, like myself, would just like the taste and the price to be right. I've had 'organic meat' in places and it tastes like ****e and I've had beef in america that has been melt in the mouth type.
We have Beef plan selling meat now and most of their customers would be buying from their local butchers anyway so I feel they're shooting themselves in the foot.....again. We deal in two local butchers that buy their meat from factories and their meat is the best

Bass Reeves wrote: »

I have to disagree, Larry has a box at the bottom of his lairage form now that all farmers have to fill out, it asks are the cattle grass fed for the majority of the year. As well if you are ever on hold to an AIBP plant you hear the nice person telling you about our pasture fed beef. I do not tick the box, I will when I get paid for to tick the box.

Its very hard to finish beef on grass alone, protein is too high. However it is possible to finish with minimal rations. I can finish cattle with 150-200 kgs of ration. In the last 12 months of the finishing period its equivlent to 4% of there feed intake on a dry matter basis and less than 0.1% of intake on a fresh weight basis.

If they pay enough for winter finished on silage and ration in the last 12 month period ration would make up 12-15% of there intake on a dry matter basis and less than 5% on a fresh weight basis.

There is a massive difference in the product between that and adlib feeding of cattle to finish them where only straights and chopped straw is used.







It a pasture fed more than a grass fed designation




Again you are waffling

Are you deliberately trolling.
You're great, claiming feeding minimal ration........ if it was only true,
Once farmers are allowed feed any ration they'll feed what they like, don't cod yourself that they'll abide by 300kg

Panch18 wrote: »

But shur of courses the terms the beef plan want are loose and free

they are writing the terms to suit themselves - and its hard to get those continental breeds finished without a fair drop of meal don't ye know

The bonus will be smaller,
The more loose and free it is,
That's the thing about niche products, it has to be high quality and exclusive.
A lot of Organic product has to go the conventional route at a conventional price, I can't see this being any different, organic would be a better product

Jjameson wrote: »

I don’t know where you and wrangler find this “beef plan “ stuff. Any link?
The term on the bord bia paper certainly suit you bass and myself perfectly.

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A8bc28ab1-514d-4294-af24-6f64d4c01115&fbclid=IwAR2h-xcw4FEuQfGnLo80RgfSSr1Yd83O6vpTBi46EdssD9w2B7GFpyXhiNw#pageNum=2

If you go to GALWAY Beef plan on Facebook you'll see where they're trying to close all the factories........... funny carry on for an organisation that calls itself Beef Plan