Beefed up supplies are a surprise

THERE has been a great deal of head scratching in recent months over the number of dairy type cattle coming on to the beef market, a factor which has helped flatten the price being paid for finished cattle, writes Andrew Arbuckle.

This week, the National Beef Association admitted it had been as surprised as others by the number of young Holstein bulls now coming forward for processing at a time when many breeders, finishers, and even processors, were thinking that supplies were on the wane.

To avoid a similar situation occurring again NBA director, Kim Haywood has advised that more attention should be taken of calf registration information from the British Cattle Movement Service and less importance placed on figures emerging from the twice yearly stock census. These she stated were often either inaccurate or outdated.

Tracing the current position back to its origins last Autumn, Haywood said that hundreds of farmers who concentrate of finishing cattle were unable to make informed decisions when buying store cattle last autumn.

At the same time, dairy beef finishers were reacting to the closure of the calf export market in 2008, along with ready supplies of cheap barley.

The result has been the rearing of thousands of Holstein bull calves that would otherwise have left the country or been shot at birth.