N.B. Prices serve as a guide only and are averaged from information collected from key producers and traders.
Market Summaries
(October 7th)
Courtesy of OLMC. For further information on the marketing of finished stock, please call: 01763 250313 / 07850 366404www.olmc.co.uk
Organic Prime Beef Cattle
The trade for organic prime cattle been low with Abattoir demand remaining sluggish. Currently there are more than enough cattle coming forward to meet the requirement. As we move towards Christmas kill schedules, we would hope to see an improvement in demand for beef.
Organic Cull Cows
After a strong cull cow trade late spring due to shortage of cows coming forward, numbers started to come on to the market. The price has gradually eroded over the summer but has remained stable in past weeks. Autumn usually sees more coming on to the market which will possibly put further pressure on price and movement.
Finished Lambs
The organic lambs were slow to come forward to start with at the beginning of the summer, prices remained strong. It is only in the past few weeks that greater numbers have come to the market, weakening trade and over supplying the current abattoir requirement.
Kill numbers have been high, which would indicate that they will most likely be scarce in the new year.
Store Cattle Report
(September 26th).
Courtesy of Peter Jones (working in conjunction with OLMC). For further information on the marketing of organic store cattle, please contact Peter Jones or Rachel Cooke: 01829 730580 / 07720 892922www.peterjoneslivestock.com
Organic cattle have been in short supply during the last three months due to producers and breeders having an over supply of grass during the very good growing season. This has meant that producers have been more inclined to keep cattle rather than sell them. This is the complete opposite of what we experienced last year during the long hot and very dry summer of 2018
I have been reporting since last summer the need for cattle to be the correct weight for age. Cattle that were born in 2017 and grazed in 2018 experienced poor growth rates due to a shortage of grass but we are finding that cattle born in 2018 are lower weights than they should be due to their dams being short of milk resulting in the calves not achieving their target weights at weaning. This has meant that we find ourselves at the end of a very good growing season, but with some cattle that are below their weight for age because of the lack of grass in 2018. This problem manifests itself when cattle do not achieve the correct carcass weight at 30-36 months (depending on the outlet) and we have seen cattle 50 kg lighter than they should be at 30 months. This problem is predominantly found in native bred cattle.
We are now seeing greater numbers of good quality cattle coming on to the market. I have just driven over 700 miles in the last 3 days looking at cattle in the west country to meet demand for finishers. Store cattle prices are lower than last year. A visit to a store cattle market or reading an AHDB store cattle report will confirm this. This is entirely due to the fact that finished cattle prices have been subdued for some months. The indications are that organic finished cattle supply will tighten in the New Year which should lift the store and finished cattle prices. The availability of forage will help finishers keep feed costs under control this winter.
We have experienced a number of “clean” heifers in calf in the last 6 months, over and above what we would normally find. Whilst we accept that an odd mistake can happen it really shouldn’t be ocurring as much as it has been and the affect of young heifers calving or being flushed can be very detrimental to growth rates and viability of the stock.
We continue to look for more suppliers of organic store cattle particularly of quality stock. I’m always happy to discuss your cattle and give advice on marketing.
David Bostock who markets the organic dairy stock for OLMC is also keen to find new organic dairy stock suppliers.
Peter Jones Office: 01829 730 580 Mobile: 07720 892 922
David Bostock Office: 01829 730 580 Mobile: 07734 808 050
