FMD market impact to persist, says Eblex

Backlogs of up to 400,000 head of lambs and 19,000 prime cattle across Great Britain - which will have grown further through October – will take the rest of 2007 and early 2008 to clear says the English Beef and Lamb Executive (Eblex).

Exacerbating the situation is the fact that average carcase weights for lambs has been a good 4 per cent higher than the same period last year and sales of the heaviest lambs (over 45.5 kg liveweight) have increased markedly, putting further pressure on the market.

Eblex says liveweight prices have been affected to a noticeably greater extent than deadweight values. At 80p/kg, the average SQQ price for finished lambs in the first three weeks of October was 28 per cent down on the trade before foot-and-mouth. However, the Executive claims carcases averaged 207p/kg over the same period.

Even greater falls have been recorded in the lighter weight lamb categories as a result of export restrictions which cut UK exports by 5,200 tonnes or 67 per cent in August alone and resulted in some 200,000-250,000 more sheep being directed to the domestic market.

The relative seasonality of marketings has meant the cattle trade has been proportionately less affected with prime cattle slaughterings down 7 per cent on 2006 in both August and September.

Cow disposals have, however, seen a far greater impact, with year-on-year slaughterings down 37 per cent in August and nearly 14 per cent in September - a total of almost 17,000 cows less than 2006 over the two months.

Cow prices have been on a seesaw - plunging from an average of 140 p/kg deadweight just prior to the first case of foot-and-mouth to 118 p/kg in mid-August and bouncing back to nearly 140 p/kg with the lifting of initial restrictions only to fall back to 114p/kg with the second wave of sanctions.