June 3, 2009

UK beef industry on self-destruction route

The NBA wants the government and retailers to make clear their long-term need for beef and emphasise that they want more heifers to be retained for breeding.

The association is also urging breeders not to sell young and fully fertile cows on the manufacturing beef market, and to hold them back to produce more calves instead.

The NBA regards the 13 percent or 240,000 head of reduction in UK suckler cow numbers between 1997 and the end of 2008 as a disaster in its own right.

If breeders cannot resist the temptation to sell fertile cows for GBP800-GBP900 per head, then another 40,000 head could be lost over 2009 and the UK suckler cow herd will drop to 1.5 million head compared with 1.8 million head at its pre-BSE peak, NBA warned.

Fewer heifers and young cows are retained for replacements and breeding, which means the capacity the breed beef calves over 2010-11 is diminishing faster than the processors and retailers think, said NBA director Kim Haywood.

Recent slaughter figures for Great Britain show that while year-on-year production of steer and young bull was down by five percent and 20 percent, respectively, there was a two-percent increase in heifer slaughters, Haywood said. 

In England alone, the number of heifers slaughtered rose by an alarming eight percent, which would eventually lead to a sharp decline in beef calf production, she said.