A free Jersey bull calf would need to come with payment of €165 to make a profit, Jonathan Forbes of Kepak told an Irish Cattle and Sheep Association (ICSA) event on Tuesday night.

Addressing a crowd of over 50 farmers at an event focusing on providing information on beef finishing, Forbes told the room they needed to be wary of the animals they choose to fatten.

He was blunt about what Kepak was after in terms of livestock specifications, outlining that the ideal heifer carcase was 330kg.

“We want retail specification animals,” Forbes said. “We are a young heifer, a young steer and a young bull operation ... we require light carcases for our markets.”

He said that retail markets dictated what kind of animals made it onto the consumer plate, explaining that retailers looked for steak that was a maximum length of 170mm long and 400g in weight.

“Retailers now have agriculture departments. They [retailers] want transparency and we get regular audits on our factories and farms.”

Given the recent intense criticism of low beef prices, Forbes accepted that the current price difficulty for farms, but defended it when compared with other countries in Europe: “Ireland is currently running 107% ahead of EU average price.”

Brexit

Brexit was emphasised as a real issue for Kepak, with 70% of Irish beef heading to the UK market, according to Forbes.

However, he said that Kepak was still forward-selling and working with suppliers to get best outcomes, which was how its buyers wanted to operate.

Forbes said that as a company, Kepak was very farmer focussed and its average supplier slaughtered an average of 22 animals, with a preference for “homebred or unmoved cattle”.

However, general secretary of the ICSA Eddie Punch, said that farmers needed to become more “ruthless” in the margins they were willing to accept from factories.

“Unless you’re getting €1,000 or better for a weanling at a mart, you’re at nothing,” he told the crowd, criticising the supermarket standards which he said penalised bigger continental-type cattle.

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