Morrisons’ bid to boost appeal of native breeds

Supermarket giant Morrisons is paving the way by offering to pay more for traditional beef breeds than it does for the fast-growing Continental crosses which have more or less taken over.

The scheme kicked in a fortnight ago, when Morrisons-owned Woodhead Brothers abattoirs in Colne, Lancashire; Spalding, Lincolnshire; and Turriff, Aberdeenshire; started paying the bonus to get supplies in before the scheme is announced to shoppers.

Beef farmers have been briefed at meetings up and down the country and Morrisons is reinforcing the message at important markets for ‘stores’ – young cattle ready for final fattening. One of the stores sales singled out for sponsorship and publicity will be at Skipton on October 12 and the auctioneers made an announcement about it this week, to alert farmers to the new demand for native breeds. A lot of Dales stores are sold there to lowland finishers.

The finishers will get 10p a kilo above the standard deadweight rate for any British native breed or cross from a native sire and 20p for Beef Shorthorns and first crosses. Some of that money will filter down the line to breeders and calf rearers, encouraging change throughout the chain.

Morrisons wants to make a speciality of Shorthorns, partly because the breed has strong Yorkshire connections, like the supermarket. A Morrisons pathfinder farm in Scotland has been running Shorthorns and some Aberdeen Angus and experimenting with different diets for the cattle and different hanging times for the meat, looking for the best flavour.

Now it has decided to buy 16,000 similar animals for butchering over a year – adding 10 per cent to its all-British buy for fresh meat, in anticipation of demand for the more traditional beef.

They will generally be lighter than the Continental crosses, sired by the likes of Limousins and Belgian Blues, which most commercial beef producers work with. The extra money is to encourage the farmers to take up an economically sub-optimal alternative – against all the tendencies in livestock farming for some time.

Morrisons wants them fed cereals for the last three months, to enhance the touches of fat within the muscle known as marbling – nowadays recognised as important to flavour, after years of emphasis on leaner and leaner meat. The carcases will also be hung for about a fortnight to develop flavour in the old-fashioned way. The meat may be a touch more expensive on the shelves than standard supermarket beef but the marketing details have yet to be finalised and Morrisons is keen to keep the cost down. The significance of the move is its intention to make native beef a standard line rather than a niche product.

Andrew Loftus, farming operations manager for Morrisons, said: “This is a big programme. We have around 1,200 farmer suppliers across the UK and source some 3,500 prime cattle every single week from them. We are now looking to supplement these with up to 300 traditional and native breeds cattle on a weekly basis. We are doing all we can to encourage the nation’s farmers to place suitable livestock in local sales.”

Craven Cattle Marts, which runs the Skipton market, has organised a special native breeds sale in advance of its main stores sale on October 12. General manager Jeremy Eaton said: “We welcome Morrisons’ ground-breaking efforts to boost the appeal of our great British breeds.”

Traditional methods

OTHER supermarkets, especially Waitrose, do sell traditional beef. But the Morrisons move is significant because of the potential scale of its impact. If the gamble pays off, it could lead to a rethink in other areas – particularly pork. Mr Loftus said: “We are looking at possibilities. I can say no more than that.”

Christopher Thomas-Everard, chairman of the National Beef Association until recently, said: “This incentive multiplies up to £30 or £60 on a 300k carcase, which is worth considering.”