Stephen Dodsworth on booming beef trade.听
The current beef boom听knows no bounds.
The extraordinary live ring has lately been at its brilliant听best, no matter the age,听weight or farm assured status, week听by week we see cattle prices enter uncharted waters.
So why is the beef price at an all-time high?
On home soil we could blame the听declining hill cow numbers, the cost听of production forcing suckler herds听to abandon ship or even the now听commonplace sexed semen in our听dairy sector, but I believe the problem is worldwide.
Despite the influx of plant-based听celebrities on our screens, what we听actually have is a growing protein-hungry population.
Aside from听the tofu, soya, almond, avocado obsessed minority, we live in a world听where people need reasonably priced听and sustainable sources of protein,听zinc, iron and vitamin B12 - guess听what? The original source is the best.听
So, the Great British beef farmer is听enjoying a purple patch and a very听well deserved one at that.
Our beef farmers have earned this, for all those bad calvings and hard winters, let alone the scars left by foot-and mouth and BSE.
What next? Cow numbers take a听long time to expand and therefore in听the short-term we will surely see听more ground-breaking prices.
If听things do not change from the top, we听may see expensive beef as the new听normal, it is fast becoming a delicacy.
Will the wise folk of Westminster听even realise that without food security听we are in a deep hole?
Subsidies must be reinvented, rewritten and reflect production levels, without this our political parties inevitably face a vote from a very听hungry nation and, if they are anything like me, I am rather angry
when I am hungry.听
Stephen Dodsworth
Stephen Dodsworth is a fieldsperson听at Darlington Farmers Auction听Mart. Call 01325 464 529, or email听[email protected]
