One of the issues raised at the recent AFBI/LMC beef conference was the prospect of the industry in NI moving to a payment system based on meat yield. With mechanical grading (or VIA) now well established, research has shown that the machines can accurately predict the amount of meat on a carcase. A point often made is that the current EUROP system for grading beef cattle does not properly reflect the amount of saleable meat on an animal.

The system was introduced in the early 1980s across the EU as a standardised means of monitoring prices. In times of low returns, intervention buying or private storage aid kicked in, which effectively propped up the market.

The days of intervention buying of beef are gone. However, the grading system has remained, as it allows the European Commission to assess the strength or weakness of the market and is also seen as an important source of transparency for producers across member states.

While meat plants must report prices to Europe against this classification grid (a process currently done in NI via the Livestock and Meat Commission), there is no legal obligation on factories to pay producers on the basis of this grade. Farmers and processors can agree a different mode of payment if they wish.

Payment on meat yield (either overall yield or yield of primal cuts) is a logical step for the industry to take, but there will be some hurdles along the way.

It is a system that will favour some breeds (lighter boned) and types of animals over others. A significant trial to test and validate the accuracy of VIA machines at predicting meat yield in NI would also be required. Then there is the thorny issue of who does the work and, more importantly, who pays.