Press Release - Price discounts on 30-48 month old cattle no longer justified

Price discounts on 30-48 month old cattle no longer justified.

The expected raising of the cattle brain testing age limit from 30 months to 48 months at the end of the year highlights the fact that there should be a significant adjustment now to the dead weight prices being offered for cattle in that age range, and reveals the value that producers are losing on such cattle at present.

So says the National Beef Association which, after studying a selection of kill sheets and the price grids offered by individual companies, has noted that many abattoirs not only charge £4-£8 for handling OTM (over thirty month) cattle because of SRM (specified BSE risk material) removal requirements, but also deduct up to 50p per kg dead weight from the carcase price of all over thirty months animals irrespective of type.   OTM prime beef cattle are currently paid for as if they were old cull cows with a lower meat yield per side and lower quality meat. 

“This means that farm income from prime (unbred) cattle that are over thirty months old are being improperly penalised’ explained NBA director”, Kim Haywood.  

According to the NBA around 48,000 cattle aged between 30-36 months and about 58,000 that are between three and four years old will have been slaughtered this year.  Thus farmers are being paid an unfairly low price on 106,000 animals.

“These account for just under five per cent of the national prime beef kill and if these carcases average a conservatively low estimate of 330 kilos, then the price discount (over and above the SRM charge of £4-£8) for breaching the OTM mark is around £165 per head or almost  £17.5 million in total,” said Ms Haywood.

“This is too much for the production side of the beef industry to be losing. OTM cattle have been taken into the food chain since November 2005 and any initial reserve retailers may have had about handling it disappeared shortly after.”

“The dead weight price discounting of any animal under four years old should therefore cease immediately.  If their beef is channelled differently from cow beef and mixed with beef taken from similar cattle that are under thirty months old it is impossible to justify the current price penalty. Finishers with 30-48 month old cattle should insist they are priced the same as other prime animals.”

For more information contact:-Kim Haywood, NBA director.  Tel. 07967 698936