With their margins already under pressure given the high prices being paid for store cattle and the squeeze applied by meat plants at the time of slaughter, beef finisher Edgar Hogg would like to see marts provide more information at the time of sale. That includes the name of the seller and the tag number of the animal.

“While some marts already put up the tag number of the animal, others don’t,” said Hogg. “It would help finishers to build up a history of the seller, how the animal was cared, the health status, etc.”

Guarantee

He also believes that all marts should guarantee that heifers sold in the store ring are free-of-calf unless otherwise stated, and that male cattle sold in the bullock ring should all be bullocks, again unless otherwise stated.

“If a farmer sells a male animal and doesn’t know, he shouldn’t be a farmer. Meat plants demand this type of information from finishers.

‘‘We are going to disappear unless more is done to help us take out unnecessary and unexpected costs such as caesareans on heifers or having to castrate bulls,” he said.

DARD staff off due to stress

Sickness absence in DARD has fallen significantly behind target with the latest figures showing that an average of 9.6 working days are currently lost per employee, compared to a target of 7.5 days.

“We are doing as many things as possible to try to reduce the figures,” said Tracey Teague from DARD when questioned on the figures during a briefing for MLAs on the Stormont agriculture committee this week.

She maintained that the key reason for absence was work-related stress, and acknowledged that the figures were significantly higher than those seen in the private sector in NI.