Two years on from strong calls from abattoirs to reduce the amount of bull beef produced in Scotland, the Farmers Journal spoke to Iain MacDonald, senior economics analyst at QMS, to find out if farmers listened to the processors’ advice.

“The Scottish Government slaughter statistics for Scottish abattoirs have shown a decrease in the popularity of young bulls in recent years,” said Iain.

“Last year, the young bull kill fell by nearly 14% compared to an overall decline of 3% in prime cattle throughput.”

Looking closer at the figures there has been a decline in the young bull kill for three years in a row.

“This leaves numbers 22% lower than in 2014, compared to an overall prime cattle slaughter reduction of 5.5%,” said Iain. “This meant that young bulls accounted for 7.6% of prime slaughter in 2017, down from 9.2% in 2014.”

So far the first quarter of 2018 saw young bull slaughter down again by 10.4% year-on-year while overall prime throughput was only 1.2% lower.

The falling numbers have been put down to an increase in sexed semen in the dairy herd along with farmers cutting bulls to make steers in increasing numbers.

Seasonal production

Young bull production is highly seasonal in Scotland, reflecting the dominance of spring calving and the timing of slaughter at 12-16 months.

“Between 2015 and 2017, young bulls averaged around 4-5% of the weekly prime kill during the first quarter of the year, before climbing to peak at around 16% in July and then slipping back to 6% for the final quarter,” said Iain.

“This means that young bulls are now climbing towards their seasonal peak, with volumes expected to increase significantly in the coming weeks. Young bull volumes will also be lifting seasonally across the rest of the UK, where they averaged around 11% of the prime kill in 2017. There is less seasonal variation, ranging from a low of around 9% to a summer peak of 13% in England and Wales, and from 8% to 17% in Northern Ireland. Much of this is down to a larger proportion of bulls coming from the dairy herd where more calves are born all year round.

“In the Irish Republic, young bulls averaged nearly 15% of the 2017 kill at export abattoirs. In contrast to the UK, young bulls peak as a share of the Irish prime kill during the winter months, exceeding 20% in January and December 2017. There was then another short-lived spike towards this level in late May/early June, before the young bull share bottomed out at less than 8% in September.”

Customer perceptions

Customer perceptions of bull beef results in less demand from retailers which discounts prices compared to steers and heifers.

The Scottish Association of Meat Wholesaler’s believes that it is down to individual plant and their customer base as to the level of young bulls that are acceptable however an oversupply would certainly depress the price.

“Also, the beef derived from young bulls is not perceived by retail customers of being to the same quality and standard as steer and heifer beef, so it is often excluded from the specification for their premium ranges which further limits demand.”

Farmgate price difference

In terms of farm gate prices per kg, young bulls trade at a discount to steers and heifers. Figures from QMS show that in 2017, the average price paid by Scottish abattoirs was 357.1p/kg for a young bull, which was 4.9% less than the 375.4p/kg average for a steer and 5.4% less than the heifer average of 377.4p/kg. However, once carcase weights have been factored in, the differentials change significantly. The average paid for a young bull carcase was only a fraction less than that paid for a heifer in 2017, at £1,289 compared to £1,296, but it was 10% less than the steer average of £1,433.

Then again, the average revenue per month of life will have been significantly higher for young bulls than for steers or heifers. Assuming an average age at slaughter of 23 months for steers and heifers and 15 months for young bulls gives an average income per month of life of £62 for a steer, £56 for a heifer and £86 for a young bull. Though it must be noted that both feeding costs and fixed costs will generally be higher in young bull systems than in forage-based steer finishing systems.

Bull beef on the continent

Outside of the UK, young bulls tend to dominate as the key animal type for beef production within the EU, where beef is commonly a by-product of the dairy industry. Each week when the EU Commission publishes beef prices for different grades of cattle on the EUROP grid, it also quotes an R3 grade price for ‘male bovines’ to allow comparison. For 21 of the 24 Member States that a price is quoted for, this is the young bull price, with the UK, Ireland and France being the only exceptions. Highlighting the dominance of young bulls on the continent, Eurostat data for 2017 shows that the ‘bull’ category of slaughter accounted for 54.8% of the combined bull, steer and heifer kill in

  • France 54.8%.
  • Spain – 61.5%.
  • Germany – 69.9%.
  • Poland – 75.8%.
  • The Netherlands – 82.6%.
  • Belgium – 92.6%.

    • Using the same dataset, the UK share was only 11.2% and it was 15.4% for Ireland.