Archived News

5th February 2011

Cattle are uppermost in our minds at present with the cost of feed rising 100% since last year whilst the price paid per kg deadweight for beef, has dropped another 10%. 

Due to our close assessment of weight gain and a precise breakdown of accounts we can see the true cost of beef production at this time.

As a rough guide, it currently costs over £2/day/per head of cattle, just for bedding and feed.  At the price/kg being paid by supermarkets, the cattle are gaining weight to the equivalent of £1.60 per day so that’s a loss of 40p/head on the food and bedding alone; the loss is substantially more when you take into account staff, vet bills, milk powder, rent, rates and insurance.

Having trimmed costs wherever possible over the last couple of years there’s little we can do about the soaring cost of feeding cattle.  Laurence spends quite some time on the phone trying to source a variety of fodder and grain at the best possible price.  The simple fact of the matter is that the supermarkets are not prepared to pay a fair price to cover the current cost of beef production. 

Laurence recently attended a Regional Beef Meeting organised by one of the large supermarkets.  There were various presentations including one on sustainability and another which sang the praises of the supermarket and its high profits this year; becoming no.2 in the big boys’ league.

If they wish to be seen as the supermarket at the quality end, and are beginning to promote sustainability; then maybe it’s time they were prepared to pay the supplier what it costs to sustainably produce quality beef (and milk, pork and lamb!)  It’s not sustainable for a farmer to sell beef below the cost of production but that’s what is expected of us.

So the question was asked: when will the supermarket begin to pay a fair price for beef? 

Their response was that consumers won’t pay more at this time, which may well be true, but supermarkets don’t have to pass the cost on to the consumer and nor should they ask the suppliers to trim more off their business (as they did the other evening) when they’ve already pared down costs beyond sustainability.

If the supermarkets paid the true price for the quality beef they wish to sell in their shops, what a fabulous news story this would be!

They could say how wonderful they are for paying the right price to the supplier but not passing that on to the consumer; that they’re willing to use a tiny fraction of their whopping profits to purchase the goods they wish to sell! This sounds reasonable enough to me.

If this ever happened, I for one would alter my shopping habits and transfer allegiance to the store TRULY applying ‘Fair Trade’ to the farmers and growers of the UK.   And believe me; we’ll know when a fair price begins to be paid.

I’m sure other consumers would follow suit if they knew they were eating quality beef purchased fairly by the supermarket.  This admirable move by the supermarket would gain new customers, thereby increasing their profits still further and recouping the cost of their initial purchases!