Dawn Meats has announced a reduction in the minimum number of days cattle must remain on the final Bord Bia Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS) farm in order for farmers to qualify for the in-spec bonus payment.

The number of days animals must remain on the final quality-assured (QA) farm before slaughter has been halved from 60 to 30.

The change comes into effect on all Dawn Meats processing sites from Monday 17 February.

The animal still needs to be resident for 70 qualified days on QA farms, 30 days on the final farm and 40 days on the previous farm.

The move will give QA farmers more options for selling forward store cattle with the mart becoming an option and could create more appetite around the ring for QA cattle near finish.

It could also mean more forward-store sellers will look to become quality-assured. The previous 60-day requirement was a long period to keep finished cattle to get the in-spec bonus.

It is important to remember that if the previous farm is not quality-assured, the residency period requirement remains the same at 70 days on the final farm.

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that OSI, the main beef buyer and manufacturer of burgers for McDonald’s, has relaxed the rules around QA residency. This has prompted Dawn Meats to relax its own rules on last farm residency.

A spokesperson from Kepak said there are no immediate plans to make any changes to its QA residency requirements.

ABP was contacted for comment.