AQW 10636/17-22
Mr John Blair
Alliance Party
South Antrim
Tabled Date: 19/11/2020
Answered On Date: 02/12/2020
Priority Written: No
Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs what assessment his Department has made on the current trends of calf prices.
Answer:
On a weekly basis my Department publishes a statistical report that contains the latest average market prices for livestock and crops. Within each of these weekly reports, average drop calf prices are reported for the latest week along with comparisons against prices in previous periods. The weekly reports show that average drop calf prices for 2019 were £208 per head with a minimum average weekly value of £179 per head and a maximum average weekly value of £258 per head over that year. The weekly reports also show that prices for drop calves in 2020 were within the range of those from the previous year until live markets closed in March due to Covid-19 restrictions. Once live markets opened again and price reporting recommenced in May there was a substantial uplift in average weekly calf prices with average weekly values ranging between £274/head and £326/head until early September. Since then, average weekly calf prices have weakened to between £234/head and £268/head for the weeks up to mid-November. With the closure of live markets from March until May a back-log of drop calves would have developed on farms. Therefore, when live markets re-opened in May there would have been older drop calves appearing in the marketplace and these would have been worth relatively more. This may have contributed to some of the increase in the average drop calf price from May onwards. Furthermore, beef prices were similar when live markets closed in March and opened again in May. However, since then beef prices increased and by early July were 30p/kg higher which equates to a difference of around £100/head for a finished animal. This increase in beef prices would also have contributed to the increase in drop calf prices since live markets re-opened. Finally, the decrease in prices since early September is in line with the trend of past years and reflects the fact that relatively more drop calves are available in the market place between September and April. In summary, my Department officials have assessed that there has been several factors that have contributed to the trend in average drop calf prices this year. These include the temporary closure of live markets due to covid-19 restrictions, rising beef prices, and the seasonality of births within the dairy herd. In particular, the temporary closure of live markets looks to have distorted the 2020 trend in drop calf prices and this is something that I am keen to avoid going forward.
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