DEAR SIR:

I had a new experience lately. I brought a load of cattle to a factory last Wednesday. The agent told us not to bring our better cattle as we wouldn’t get any extras for young cattle or any bonus. We picked out a load of Friesians and we had 14 Os at 350kg and two Rs at 360kg.

The following morning, I loaded a truck of white heads and Angus for a different factory, for which I was offered 365kg and to go on the grid. In the load, we had five Ps, in which they were all fat class 3 or minus and the rest were Os. I rang the factory after my agent said he couldn’t do anything and spoke to them about their grading and how the Friesians got on a lot better the day before.

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I offered to email them the sheets from the other factory. They said they didn’t care and that’s what they graded them as.

Fight

The Ps got 335kg. So I have learned that whatever price we fight for our cattle, they can still hammer us with our grading.

Who polices the factories for the weights and grades? Are we only kidding ourselves protesting against the factories?