Foyle move raises big questions on QA criteria
Steers Heifers Cull Cows Young Bulls IF you’ve read the story on the front page you’ve already got a fair idea of where the factory trade was yesterday morning.
In effect factory prices have hardened by 5c/kg, while the Foyle Meats plant in Donegal (Carrigans as it is known locally) strides 5-10c/kg further on again.
The feeling I got as I phoned around was that no plant realistically expected this week to be able to buy quality at less than €3.75/kg for bullocks and €3.85/kg for heifers, with rumours circulating that prices of €3.80 and 3.90/kg were already in the pipeline for some suppliers.
And all of this on a kill last week that reached 39,140 – the average weekly kill for the last seven weeks has been 38,652.
That extra 5c/kg seems to have also worked its way into the bull job, but more selectively for the present.
Prices quoted by agents in some areas yesterday for bulls up to 24 months saw U grades on €3.90-4.00/ kg, with Rs on €3.80-3.90/ kg, while O grades seem to be struggling a bit at €3.60-3.70/kg. Prices for cows yesterday appeared to be no better or worse than they were last week with R grades trading at €3.303.40/kg, O grades are on €3.10-3.15/kg, and your P+ around the €3.00/kg mark.
Turning to the welcome decision of Foyle Meats to extent Quality Assurance payments across their entire QPS grid, the first thing to be said is their decision to do this is hugely significant; and it poses big questions for both Bord Bia and the Minister for Agriculture.
How can Bord Bia now stand over their name being used by factories who only pay selective Quality Assurance payments after Foyle Meats have come out and acknowledged what farmers have been saying for years — if a farm is quality assured all beef produced there on is entitled to a quality assurance payment?
For the minister the question is similar.
The only negative, if it is a negative, is that to qualify for Carrigans’ Q A payments the animals have to be on the qualifying farm for a minimum of 90 days as opposed to the usual 70.
Mixed messages
The comment from my local publican in this column last week — that farmers were sending the public mixed messages in relation to where the cattle trade was at, with poor beef factory prices coinciding with strong mart prices — brought a strong response from several farmers.
The two points that emerged were that the strength of mart prices were a matter of opinion, and that if finishers could get at least a €150/hd of the €250/hd difference between the factory price here and the UK there would be more money available to buy pints in that man’s pub.
In essence, if farmers are making money, then everybody in rural Ireland benefits.