Summer show success (From Gazette & Herald)

Summer show success

AFTER three months of hard work and blind faith, it was a just reward to get a sweet sniff of success at the fatstock summer show on Tuesday.

Major thanks go to all those loyal clients who have supported the auction system and got it going again; and also to no small degree to Philip Place and his band who have put so much effort into Malton.

There was a rather special atmosphere in the old town again, with some wonderful quality cattle on display in the outside pens where Trevor Mudd of Knaresborough awarded the championship to a heavyweight Limousin steer produced by George Marwood of Harome and sold to Brian Glaves of Brompton for 148p/kilo.

It was a pleasure to welcome Brian back into the ring, heavily disguised under cover of a baseball cap, but, even more importantly, it was the buzz in the trade which should encourage more farmers to come back to their market.

The main prices for the show cattle are set out below:

YOUNG BULLS - G & R Mason (124p), sold to Hibberds; Roland Mason (119p), sold to Hibberds; Roland Mason (116p), sold to Cleveland Meat

LIGHT STEERS - R H Mason (136p), sold to Hibberds; R H Mason (133p), sold to Hibberds

HEAVY STEERS - G I Marwood (148p), sold to B W Glaves; Morley Bros (117p), sold to Hibberds; Morley Bros (114p), sold to Hibberds

LIGHT HEIFERS - R H Mason (127p), sold to Hibberds

HEAVY HEIFERS - G I Marwood (149p), sold to Radfords; G I Marwood (136p), sold to Radfords; R H Mason (140p), sold to Agars Butchers

In the sheep section, it was Brian Glaves who this time donned his judging cap to award the championship to Gordon Harper of Newton-on-Rawcliffe for a pen of lambs which made £60, bought by Hibberds Butchers of Doncaster.

As with the cattle, the buyers responded to the quality of sheep brought forward and prices were very acceptable considering the time of year.

HEAVY LAMBS - G Harper (£60), sold to Hibberds; J E Whittaker (£54.50), sold to E R Schofield; C T Stonehouse (57.50), sold to Atkinsons

LIGHT LAMBS - W H Jackson (£52.50), sold to Hibberds; G Harper (£51.50), sold to Atkinsons; E E Wilkinson (£53),sold to A Traves

All in all an excellent day and thanks to everyone involved.

Although our daily pinta in the UK costs the same as in the rest of Europe, the price paid to the dairy farmer is running around 10pc less than to fellow EC producers.

This differential will have widened further with the latest reduction in milk price and makes the difference between a reasonable profit and a hefty loss.

The Milk Development Council has set up an independent investigation to start immediately to concentrate on eight key areas:

Who is making a profit and where?

Are UK dairy farmers less supported by CAP?

How far is currency fluctuation affecting profitability?

Does UK competition law discriminate against UK dairy farmers?

Are UK retail prices lower than in other countries?

Why are dairy processing profits lower?

Is the supply of milk and processing capacity mismatched?

How does the supermarket/processor/ marketplace operate; and does this lead to cost inefficiencies?

There need to be some fairly rapid answers as the dairy industry, particularly in Yorkshire, has gone into a rapid decline.

BBC Bloomer - On Sunday night, the BBC screened a rather exaggerated and hysterical tale about the dangers of GM crop production. It was fiction and, as a fairy story, interesting enough but my son Tom rang immediately after the programme, disgusted by the credits at the end of the programme.

It is hard to believe the BBC flashed up a link to their website stating that all GM crop sites in the UK would be listed on it. Is that an incitement to trouble or not?

French Illegal Sheep Ruling - Our French partners in Europe seem determined to go ahead with a regulation from July 1 that all sheep over six months of age must have their spinal cords removed. This has enormous cost implications for our slaughtering industry as sheep exports to Europe are growing in importance; and France is the gateway to that market. Two years ago, we moved nearly 100,000 tonnes of lamb onto the continent.

David Burn, the EC Commissioner in charge of Food Safety, accepts the UK's position and is threatening to take France to court. It really is unacceptable that our Gallic neighbours can continue to do just as they like when claiming to be part of the European Union.

Farm Buildings Rates Threat - Peter Ashbridge from Northallerton has been sent a £12,000 rates bill for his farm buildings which could set a very nasty precedent for a lot of farmers who have diversified into contracting their services.

The Inland Revenue office at Harrogate picked up an advertisement from Mr Ashbridge in the Yellow Pages and paid him a visit. They claim that the farm buildings are not being used exclusively for work on his own farm and therefore there is a liability to pay rates.

The NFU and even William Hague are involved in fighting the case but it is rather ominous.

Generally, the fatstock marketing scene is pretty encouraging with cattle slightly firmer and lambs slipping a little as one would expect during June.

On Tuesday, we had a total of 109 cattle including a few cows and, although somewhat inflated due to the show, the overall average was 100p/kilo through the market.

Intervention-type steers were making from 95-105p/kilo and retail butcher cattle were going on nicely from 105-120p/kilo.

Breaking-up cattle were also pulled upwards with the trade and there wasn't too much under 80p/kilo.

There were 930 sheep in the market and the lambs averaged 125p right through, up to a top of 139p for some smart Continentals.

The ewe trade is still pretty good and Roland Mason had a top price of £55.50.

We are still selling stock through our deadweight service and 'R' grade cattle are running from 165-172p/kilo with the occasional 1p or 2p more for Farm Assured status.

The poorer quality black and whites are still difficult to move at anything better than 140-150p/kilo.

The lamb trade is erratic with prices often moving 20p or 30p in a day.

As at Friday evening, we were able to get 280p/kilo deadweight but Monday morning has seen a reduction to around 260-270p.

Anyone wanting further information please contact the helplines at Malton on (01653) 697820/692151 and York on (01904) 489731.

Updated: 11:09 Thursday, June 13, 2002