The Irish Cattle and Sheep Association (ICSA) has completed a beef trial which beef chair Edmund Graham said shows substantial mark-ups on heifers headed for the supermarket shelf. He believes that when some supermarkets give big discounts on meat, the farmer is essentially “subsidising other over-priced goods in the supermarket”.

The trial also found that suckler-type animals, through higher meat yield, are generating a lot of added value that is not being reflected in the beef grid payment system.

Pricing

The trial showed that an O= animal (dairy cross) under 30 months was priced at €1,043 (VAT excluded) and its meat could fetch €2,217 in the supermarket, a mark-up before costs of €1,174.

An R+ grade suckler animal, under 30 months, was priced at €1,228 (VAT excluded) and its meat was priced at €2,741, a mark-up before costs of €1,512.

The trial was conducted taking two heifers from the farm of Dan Lynam in Westmeath who were weighed live, slaughtered and hung for 28 days. The meat from both was then weighed, category by category and priced according to a range of prices available in the main retail outlets.

Graham said that although the trial was carried out on just two animals, it “points the way for more research and investigation”. He also said that this study will inform how the ICSA will approach the Beef Market Taskforce and suggested that the taskforce will need a debate on the sustainability of pricing policy, given the variation of prices among the supermarkets.

Offers

“We have tried to exclude very high prices which are not reflective. For example, we have taken a price of €28.73 for fillet steak even though we have seen it priced at €37.50. But on the other hand, some supermarkets are selling beef under special offers without any regard for the fact that you cannot feed two animals for the price of one or decide that this month I am going to cut my heifers’ feed by 33%,” said Graham.

It is clear that further subsidies for sucklers are a waste of time if we do not effectively address the massive profiteering

“A farmer might get €1,100 for an animal that has taken over three years to bring from breeding to slaughter, whereas processors and retailers expect to make more than that for processing the animal and putting it on shelf, a process which takes three weeks.”

Fifth quarter

He outlined the earnings that processors made for the fifth quarter in 2018 – beef offal was worth €385m. This figure works out at over €200/head, which the farmer does not get paid for.

“When you look at how much meat can be got from a suckler type heifer, it's beggar belief that the suckler farming sector is on its knees. It is clear that further subsidies for sucklers are a waste of time if we do not effectively address the massive profiteering on these animals in particular.”

Graham acknowledged that this trial has its limitations and that ICSA would be demanding that similar exercises should be done on a wider basis, both domestically and internationally as part of the Beef Market Taskforce work programme.

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