Natives outshine the continentals

FOR SOME years now I have made a point of attending the Stirling Bull Sales, for a combination of reasons – but primarily it gives me a chance to catch up with the people who produce our store cattle.

When there, I get the opportunity to see at least five different breeds of beef cattle and see how they have changed in recent years, which especially applies to the Shorthorns and more notably, this year, the Charolais.

As most people in the trade are aware, the supermarket giant, Morrisons, is responsible for a change in the fortunes of the Shorthorn breed. To put it mildly, it has been quite staggering how the shape and values have altered in the breed over such a short period of time.

It just goes to show how beef producers can react to a price premium for a product and to be fair to Morrisons, it has stayed at a constant level since it started this promotion – albeit, it may have tweaked the spec' a little!

Morrisons, of course, followed the lead of Marks and Spencer, which has been paying a premium for Aberdeen-Angus beef for a much longer time. However, that premium fluctuates from time to time depending on supply. I think in the past few weeks it has been at its worst, with a 25p per kg drop in a short time scale, taking the premium down to just 5p/kg.

It is with this volatility that A-A beef finishers find difficult to cope. It has also had a significant effect in the store ring, with Angus values taking a big hit.

Another notable change I saw at Stirling last week was the absence of the big framed gangly Charolais bulls I recall from a year ago. A year ago this column mentioned that the Charolais should return to the Kersknowe Festival size of Charolais, but I am sure I had no influence on the change I noticed this week.

It was clearly evident the breed is reacting to what the market place requires. What surprised me was how quickly breeders had reacted!

That said, there is no doubt that my impressions from Stirling were loud and clear – the two native breeds were very much in demand. The Angus and Shorthorn were well bid for, while the three continentals, Limousin, Charolais and Simmental, found it more difficult to sell.

So, what does that tell the industry? Is there a massive swing to native beef breeds? I do not think so, because if there is, it will soon get overdone, as has been demonstrated this past few weeks with the Angus breed, where the premium has almost gone.

It happened because of two reasons – there is a seasonal factor kicking in, and there are just too many Angus cattle about for the market place to handle. The reality is that supply and demand are working, plus there are rumours that some supermarkets, other than M and S, have stopped selling Angus beef and cancelled contracts – which is totally untrue.

It seemed the rumour mill in the beef industry was working overtime this past week and before I leave this breed thing, I had a walk up and down our feed passages this morning and out of around 700 head I do not think we have even 50 native head in our finishing unit.

What is more important to our beef sector is whether or not the returns for finishing cattle will stay stable as they have been for the past 12 months? Hopefully, the answer will be in the affirmative, but what are the chances of that being the case?

No doubt the biggest factor will be currency, which, since the Brexit vote has affected our largest import source, Ireland. Incidentally, last week Ireland had its largest kill since 2010, at just over 38,000, which compares with our Scottish kill of 8000! This gives you an indication of the difference in scale of both countries and clearly means that if currency works in our favour, it is much more attractive for Ireland to send its beef elsewhere.

So, are there any other factors that could come into play that will have an influence on Scotch beef returns. The answer has to be very unlikely, simply because the supply and demand balance seems to be close to what the market place requires.

The only possibility of any change would have to be what effect our weather has had on the cattle which have been housed in recent weeks, if any. Time will tell.

One thing that is noticeable this past month is the number of buyers around the store rings is much less. One reason given by a well-respected auctioneer was that the smaller finishers were disappearing and the big guys were just getting bigger, which I certainly think, is the case. I probably know the top 20 finishers and there is certainly a fair few of them tweaking things here and there.

Dare I mention tup sales, which always catch the headlines at this time of year when the Blackie people seem to enjoy breaking records and in recent years this has been fuelled by turbine income. So far, it seems that a Swaledale at £90,000 is the headliner. Not being a sheepie man, I must admit I would struggle to fall in love with the shape of this record breaking Swale, but you have to remember I know nothing about sheep!

Not so long ago, everything we did in farming had to be based on science. Whatever the scientists said was gospel and we, as farmers, had to abide by their decisions. Not so today. The people in power today seem to be the minority in society called, for want of a better description, 'do-gooders'.

Take this past few days as an example where this minority group of people appear to be going to win the case for the banning of the much used herbicide, Roundup, which is used to control the pernicious weed population around the world. In Scotland, we have the same situation with GM technology – yet it is used right around the world. I just wonder how these people think how the ever growing population will be fed in the future!

I am penning these thoughts a few hours before the clocks go back an hour. Personally, I would prefer them to stay at the so-called summer-time, but change we must, as the seasons do.

As I look out the window, all the trees, previously sporting lovely autumn coloured leaves, have almost gone bare with only a few rusty leaves left hanging. The hundreds of acres of grass in front of me are now a deep green, which the sheep seem to be enjoying, so, officially speaking, we are now into winter mode.

Having said that, we never really seem to leave it, with cattle housed all the year round. Trying to finish beef cattle at grass is becoming a never-ending and challenging task in North Lanarkshire.

However, if you had been a Lauderdale Discussion Society’s first winter meeting the other night you would have heard two very different presentations, from two farmers both working in the same county, with completely different systems.

Michael Shannon, with his brand 'Damned-Delicious', runs Aberdeen-Angus beef which are never housed, kept on a paddock grazing system, finishing at just over 300kg and sold through his own butcher’s shop on-farm at Thankerton, near Biggar. In contrast was yours truly, on our mostly housed system, feeding grass silage and veggie waste. I think Michael’s land must be much more free-draining than ours and of course, his Irish blarney is much better than mine.

By the time you read this issue, we will be into November and if your hobby is attending both beef and dairy events then there are plenty coming up, throughout the country – from Scotbeef's Premier Meat Exhibition, Portlethen for MacIntosh Donald’s awards, to Lanark Market for LiveScot, Carlisle for the Borderway Beef Expo and not forgetting the largest event, AgriScot, at Ingliston, where the dairy sector has its climax of show cows to end the year.

Probably the most important aspect of all these events is the meeting of old and new friends. No doubt having a craic about the challenging year will be on the agenda, plus all the other things we farmers like to discuss, such as the weather!

Today we have had a perfect Sunday morning which is the first since the first week of June. It is also the first time we have had four days without rain since June! It has not been the wettest summer on record, with from April 1 to the end of September recording 19.25 inches.

The highest rainfall over that period in this part of Scotland was 2002, at 25-inches and what is different this year from 1985 was that back then we only had half-an-inch in the first week of October, followed by three weeks of dry, excellent conditions – this year we've had 3.5 inches, with only a few days this last week being dry.