The Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) in Northern Ireland continues to provide an important function for beef and sheep producers through its weekly analysis of prices paid by factories for livestock.The ability to analyse the information comes from EU legislation, which requires member states to report weekly beef prices against certain grades.

Locally, DARD has passed on the responsibility for collating prices to the LMC. They are therefore in a privileged position, having access to information that most factories would probably prefer to keep out of the public domain.

As well as the more mundane averaging of prices across grades, the LMC has periodically done some in-depth analysis.

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One example was the work in 2013 that highlighted the wide range of prices (over 20p/kg) paid across the same grades.

It gave farmers an insight into the murky world of beef pricing. Presumably, it didn’t go down well with processors at the time.

However, when it comes to analysing the extent of the price differential that exists between here and Britain, the LMC continues to show factories in a more favourable light. Its analysis on the basis of the R3 grade consistently under-represents the extent of the price gap.

Surely, a more balanced approach would be to include U3s (the base used in NI) and R4s (the base used in Britain) in any analysis. At the end of September, the price difference on R3 steers was 28.4p/kg, but on U3s and R4s, it stood at 35.5p/kg. Across steers of all grades, the gap was 31.5p/kg.

On the subject of grading, there is also the ridiculous situation where farmers in NI are asked to pay 50p per head for something that factories are required to do by law. It might only be 50p, but the principle is wrong. The charge cannot be justified and should be removed immediately.