Harrison & Hetherington has said selling cattle over the next few weeks could be a good business decision for beef farmers.
Commercial sales manager and sales team leader at Harrison & Hetherington, Grant Anderson, said prices for store cattle are goo and supply is still tight.
Farmers could take advantage of this and sell ahead of the usual August/September rush for the same margins, he said.
Across its eight marts in Scotland and northern England, store cattle have seen sales averaging £1,400 recently and prices for calves, stirks and young bulls have lifted.
This year’s beef trade started well, and although it has slowed with the poorer weather, beef cattle prices are remaining relatively good:
“The less than summery weather has definitely impacted beef sales, but prices are still good and supply is likely to tighten again,” Grant said.
Analysing mart data from the Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers (IAAS), Grant said customers are beginning to take a “much closer look” at costs and returns at the moment.
“The most common question we get in the mart is: ‘What’s trade like this week?’,” he said.
“Farmers could consider selling differently this year and get their cattle to the mart over the next 2-3 weeks for margins that will match the same six weeks later.”
Lamb sales
Whole selling cattle over the next few weeks could be good business for beef farmers, Grant said now is not the time to rush lambs off farm before they are well finished.
Grant said lamb has seen some real highs this year with ethnic festivals close together, also coinciding with Easter demand and lower imports, to make supply tight and prices very good.
However he warned farmers against selling light.
“It’s been a perfect combination of key celebrations rolling into one another and we’ve seen lambs go for £50-100/head more than we’d ever imagined, but there’s now a bit of a lull in the trade so buyers are looking not for numbers but for quality,” he said.
“This is hard when at this time of year farmers are keen to get lambs off farm to get much needed income and to avoid the cost of feeding them to reach target weights, especially after another cold and wet lambing, but we are just not seeing the prices unless they are well finished. Lambs should be at least 43kg to get the maximum returns.”
Going forward, there will be less lambs available this year due to the bad weather and disease affecting lambing, which may mean lower supply again next year, Grant said, and there is also a high cull value in ewes.
“On the back of another bad lambing weather-wise and Schmallenberg disease in the south, some farmers have taken advantage of the high cull price, and the opportunity to farm less sheep,” he said.
“They are watching the market and the impact of the cost of living and taking a hard look at their businesses.
“We are seeing some key strategic decisions being made, some of which include reducing their numbers, and this means supply will be tight.
“It will be interesting to see how the markets develop but as these different impacts come together, the marts will have an even greater role in price discovery and ensuring sellers and buyers get the best price on the day.”
