It is now three months after the conclusion of marathon beef forum talks. While a meeting took place since the turn of the year, the recent upturn in the beef market meant the last meeting progressed very much under the radar with the heated discussions of previous meetings left aside.

For farmers and the beef industry, it is critical that important issues are kept to the fore and not forgotten. Over the next few weeks, we will talk to the main players in the forum to see what topics are still up for debate and where progress needs to be made.

For IFA National Livestock Committee chairman Henry Burns, the important thing is the a series of measures to restore farmer confidence agreed at the beef forum are implemented. They are underwritten by Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney, who has committed to staying with the process and seeing it through.

By their nature these measures require time and, while IFA won’t tolerate delay without good reason, it recognises that the priority is to get it right as opposed to speed.

Although there are a series of measures, some have grabbed more attention than others.

One such area centres on carcase trim and grading of cattle. While there is general acceptance of satisfactory performance of the VIA technology (mechanical grading), Burns wants more transparency and is of the view that “it is unacceptable that there is no recourse to an independent appeal” if a farmer is not satisfied with the grade he gets for an animal. This will be a challenge given that it is in legislation that the machine classification cannot be overruled.

The level of trim removed before weighing is also contentious and, according to Burns, discussions are ongoing with the Department on how it will contribute to a monitoring of carcase dressing to make sure trim is as it should be.

Turning to the thorny topic of specifications, there is recognition that the key farmer demands in this area have been granted. No deductions on base prices up to 36 months of age at slaughter and no weight limits for a year are generally in place.

Burns focuses on how closely the Irish cattle kill is to the EU average and is of the view that the market must accommodate the range of cattle that reflects the different systems on Irish farms.

He is very reluctant to allow supermarkets to dictate age and carcase weight of cattle at slaughter. The principle of Irish factories taking what farmers produce, making the best of it and returning a value to their farmer suppliers is a long-established one in the Irish industry.

Moving from this position and taking on the challenge of meeting a more demanding specification in return for more money for cattle going into the factory will require the building of a level of confidence that isn’t in place at present.

An obstacle identified by Burns in this scenario is coping with the mixed market messages that come from processors. When cattle are scarce, spec goes out the window, and when there are plenty of cattle about, then spec tightens.

It is clear that the financial pain of 2014 is still felt. Bulls remain a sore point. Going back to Food Harvest 2020, he claims a clear signal was given that Irish factories could handle extra production, yet an extra 150,000 cattle last year on top of the recent average annual kill of 1.5 million head totally disrupted the market, with farmers often having to wait for weeks to get cattle away and then at a very poor price. His position on getting young dairy calves exported live out of the system is reinforced at this point.

Strong views remain in the IFA on separation of Quality Payments System (QPS) and Quality Assurance (QA). Henry Burns’ view is that QA is a standalone issue that needs to be incentivised in its own right, as inspections are becoming ever more intrusive for farmers. As for the present €3 QA payment, he reports that farmers see this amount as totally inadequate recognition for their support of QA.

Origin Green

Origin Green is another sensitive subject. Ireland has made an impressive start in measuring emissions on farms. The trouble is that, like opening the export markets, the easy part is the launch. For Origin Green to have real substance, we need to demonstrate reduction in gas output, but Burns is reluctant to sign up to anything that would interfere with existing farmer production systems.

One of the obvious ways of reducing gas emissions from cattle is to reduce the age at slaughter, but this isn’t accepted as the basis to trying to force the age down. Fine, if it can be achieved by improved genetics, but again the issue of bull beef is revisited. He points out that intensively fed bulls processed at half the age of steers are the most efficient for reduction of gasses, but this doesn’t fit current thinking, unlike a few years ago. Similarly, it doesn’t fit the story of our grass-fed beef production system.

At the forum, the IFA has prioritised moving the age limit of prime cattle from 30 to 36 months

Moving to the subject of price transparency and the development of indices, it is clear that this remains a work in progress. In reality setting these up and establishing their validity does take time. There is little point rushing something that isn’t robust – better take time and get it correct. One area that impressed Burns was the system he discovered in discussions recently with the National Cattlemen’s Association in the US where the industry has been feeding the price of beef cuts into USDA twice daily. This enables a picture of trade movements be developed. Interestingly, this was in response to difficulties in relationships between US farmers and factories 15 years ago.

Price transparency

From the discussion on price transparency, it is clear just how much confidence-building is needed in the Irish supply chain. Accepting tighter specifications is clearly a problem for the IFA. Operating in a market where Irish prices are so far behind the UK, it is easy to understand how tight specifications are hard to swallow for Irish farmers. Perhaps if it could be demonstrated clearly how much more money could be returned for tighter specifications, then the debate could begin. Overall, from the IFA perspective, it is clear that while the talks may have improved the mood since the depths of last autumn, much of the substantive work is still to be done. While prices were improving, the pressure was no doubt reduced. But if they were to slip back, it could return.