This article is from page 40 of the 2010-02-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 40 JPG
CLARE farmers are being encour- aged to consider selling their cattle north of the border if competitive prices cannot be found locally.
That was the message from the ICSA beef chairman Peter Fox who urged Clare farmers to get quotes from three different marts before selling cattle and to seriousely con- sider selling cattle in Northern Ire- land.
‘There are also buyers looking for bulls up to 24 months of age and 750kKgs live-weight for the Italian ex- port market. These bulls are making €180/100kgs live weight which is the equivalent to €3.28/kg to €3.33/kg
dead-weight,” he said.
“All of the above factors will put pressure on home factories to in- crease their prices.
“The first factories that will see a scarcity of stock will be the inde- pendent ones so going forward farm- ers should be able to sell their stock with confidence,’ he concluded.
There was good news however for suckler farmers with the news that quality finished suckler cows were currently making €300 plus along with the weight in many marts.
This 1s according to the ICSA suck- ler chairman Brendan McLaughlin who last week said that now is a good time to sell at the marts.
“Farmers with quality cows should
look at selling them in marts rather than bringing them to the factories,” he said.
“It costs a maximum of €10 to sell an animal through the mart where- as factories charge over €50 to kill cows when you take into account BSE testing, vet fees and insurance costs. There are no BSE testing charges in marts and levy charges are a lot less.”
McLaughlin also reminded farm- ers that the EIF levy is voluntary and they can advise mart managers not to deduct these levies from their final cheque.
He also called for supports to be put in place to protect the Suckler Discussion Groups.
“If the minister can give funds to dairy farmers to facilitate dairy discussion groups why are suckler farmers being discriminated against? Suckler farmers sharing their own experiences and best practices for the improvement of the suckler herd can only be positive for the future of the beef industry and the live export trade,” he said.
“The minister has made €18 mil- lion available over three years to the dairy sector to encourage dairy farmers to participate in discussion groups.
“This money has come from un- spent Single Payment funds that are supposed to be available to all farm- are