UK farm group advises against selling under-finished cattle

The English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX) warned that selling forward stores as finished stock could lead to lower returns and target penalties.

With a good summer of grazing coming to an end, beef producers are often tempted to sell their animals as finished stock, sometimes prematurely. This can lead to the market being flooded with cattle which do not meet target specification and therefore receive penalties, seeing returns which are significantly below the maximum achievable.

EBLEX is urging producers to either sell the animals as forward stores or hold them back and finish the cattle to a better conformation and fat class to maximise the return on each animal.

Under-finished cattle are in less demand, and also may not have reached their full potential weight, meaning the finisher will lose out on those extra weight, which in turn will lead to a poor killing out of percentage causing lower returns, said Steve Powdrill, EBLEX North East Regional Manager.

Analysis showed that maximum net margins tend to be reached at slaughter weights of about 650kg live weight for steers, and a heavier weight will be less cost-effective, said Dr Mary Vickers, EBLEX Senior Beef and Sheep Scientist.