Meat price uncertainty a headache for sector

Kim-Marie Haywood, director of the National Beef Association, said continual rises and falls in the price paid to farmers for their beef is making it difficult for them to accurately plan for investment and raising question marks over the efficacy of the current pricing system in the UK.

Ms Haywood told the Yorkshire Post that price fluctuations between regions and times of the year made it difficult for farmers to accurately provide information when applying for loans and cast uncertainty over how their incomes would shape up in the future. She also called for forward contracts to be offered to beef farmers in order to provide more certainty.

Ms Haywood said: "We have a very strange marketplace at the moment. In the last couple of years we have seen a really strong storage price but prices for finished cattle are quite down.

"We have been meeting with supermarkets to try and get them forward contracts, which they offer for imported beef but not for domestic. Even six months would make things a lot easier than they are."

The news comes as full-year figures for UK exports of lamb and mutton in 2009 show an increase of 19 per cent against 2008 to nearly 312m.

Volumes also increased, up nine per cent to 94,500 tonnes, and sheep meat was exported to 32 destinations.

For the same period, beef exports were also up, rising 2.4 per cent to 83,300 tonnes, latest statistics from AHDB Market Intelligence show.

Jean-Pierre Garnier, export manager for EBLEX, said: "Nearly 30 per cent of British lamb is now exported. It is heartening to see growth in all our major European export markets, namely France, Belgium, Germany and Italy, but third country exports are rising too."

Meanwhile, Askham Bryan College has announced the launch of a second Fantasy Farming League competition.

Following up on the success it enjoyed last year it will this time focus on the profitable production of dairy animals.

As well as Holstein and British Friesians, Brown Swiss, Montbeliard and Swedish Reds have been included and organisers hope the project will help dairy and beef producers increase profitability on their farms and at the same time improve their stock welfare.

Some 30 beef and dairy farmers from across Yorkshire are taking part. They have been divided into 10 teams, each with two beef farmers and one dairy farmer and given eight calves to manage from 12 weeks old to finishing.

The calves are being kept at the National Beef Training Unit at the York-based college.

For more information please see http://www.askham

bryan.ac.uk/fantasy_farmer