Take Care with Immediate Cow Marketing

English dairy and beef herds should take particular care with the renewed food chain marketing of animals born after July 1996 in the immediate aftermath of the OTM rule change, advises the English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX). Only by doing so will they avoid a number of potential pitfalls as well as maintaining all-important beef market stability.The shortage of manufacturing beef continuing across Europe means commercial cull cow values in most countries are markedly higher than current OTMS compensation rates. However, UK producers will only be able to take full advantage of this favourable opportunity once the bone-in beef export ban is lifted – hopefully as early as the coming February – and processors re-establish their European trade – which will take a little longer.

Without export opportunities, the immediate prospects for commercial cull cow values depend on a number of other time-related factors. These include the number and location of abattoirs approved to process Over 30 Month cattle for the food chain; differences between commercial dressing specifications and OTMS practice; the extra costs incurred by abattoirs in the segregation of carcases and by-products pending BSE test results; and the successful establishment of the new market with its associated supply chain adjustments.

The marketability of cull cows will also be influenced by their farm assurance status and, in the case of dairy culls in particular, the fact that many animals are of a very different size and conformation to those last marketed commercially nearly 10 years ago.

Against this background, for the immediate future, EBLEX advises cull cow producers to:

• Ensure they have the required beef assurance certification;
• Identify and investigate your local cull auction or convenient abattoir outlets for cull cows and establish their requirements, dressing specifications and pricing schedules;
• Continue selling ill, poorly-conformed or very lightweight stock born after July 1996 into the OTM scheme for as long as the option remains available;
• Consider finishing animals only if the price differentials between poor and good culls make putting on extra weight and condition worthwhile;
• Plan culling and any cull finishing to avoid traditional peaks of sales;
• Establish a simple evaluation system to assess all culls for their suitability for finishing;
• Examine the availability of surplus or cheaply-acquired feeds and facilities for on-farm
  finishing that do not interfere with the primary milk-producing enterprise; and,
• Evaluate the prospects for home finishing against the opportunities for selling cull cows for finishing elsewhere.