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Know How / Livestock marketing

Quality and consistency is key in maximising the value of your prime and breeding stock at sale time. We give dairy, beef, sheep and pig producers advice for targeting the right markets, whether they be selling live, dead, hitting premiums or supplying direct retailer contracts.

Case studies

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LIVESTOCK

Stores or finishers: Why doing the sums regularly is vital

Analysis of one business on Anglesey, carried out by Farming Connect, showed a net margin of £19/head of cattle finished, or £0.03/kg of liveweight sold. This compares favourably with the…

LIVESTOCK MARKETING

Mixed farmer reaps premium price via direct meat marketing

Selling livestock direct to local butchers and marketing produce via a meat box scheme is helping Shetland farmer Jamie Leslie cut out the middlemen to reap a premium price for…

LIVESTOCK MARKETING

Why showing is one rare breed producer’s top marketing tool

Within hours of Gussie Harmer’s Welsh pig scooping the supreme pig championship at the 2022 Royal Welsh Show, the young breeder had secured forward orders for four females from that…

LIVESTOCK MARKETING

How a lamb producer and breeder uses EBVs for marketing rams

David Rossiter is a pioneer of performance recording – he started collecting data in the 1970s when he established the Huish flocks at Burton Farm, in Galmpton, Devon. With his…

LIVESTOCK MARKETING

How three breeders market their bulls

Livestock marketing has come on in leaps and bounds, with the internet opening up a global audience for bulls and sales moving online. We speak to three breeders about their…

SHEEP

How a resilient sheep dairy farm overcame multiple setbacks

Building a resilient farm system, along with strategies for improving mental health and resilience, have helped a Cumbrian business overcome multiple hurdles. Faced with a whirlwind of challenges, Cumbrian farmers…

Practical advice

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LIVESTOCK MARKETING

How online trade has transformed dairy sales

Online selling has taken what were once local or regional livestock sales and given them a global audience, with particular success seen in the dairy sector. Online auction platform MartEye…

BUSINESS

How demand for ‘regen beef’ is expanding in niche markets

Significant premiums are being paid by some butchers, restaurant chains and retailers for regeneratively farmed beef. The sector remains in its infancy, and what exactly is involved in regenerative practices…

DAIRY

How spring-calvers can prepare for end of bull calf euthanasia

Producing a viable dairy bull calf is a challenge in a system that relies on an efficient cow of smaller stature to maximise milk production from grazed grass on the…

BEEF

3 beef systems and their earning potential compared

More farmers are considering beef production as the industry experiences a sustained period of buoyant returns. Buying in calves and selling them as stores is now the most common system…

LIVESTOCK

How hill farmers can tap into new market for light lambs

Hill farmers could tap into new markets for lighter carcasses by intensively finishing lambs to a deadweight of 12-16kg. With producer groups in Ireland already supplying up to 30,000 lighter…

LIVESTOCK MARKETING

Alternatives to selling livestock at markets this autumn

Ongoing social distancing restrictions and the uncertainty surrounding some breeding stock sales mean farmers may have to think about alternative ways to buy and sell their stock. The backend of the…

Insights

SHEEP

Why "breed snobbery" could challenge liveweight sales

A desire to change the system, lower the cost base and move towards self-replacing maternal genetics has left some businesses in the cold when selling liveweight, Farmers Weekly has heard.…

SHEEP

EBV proven rams can add £6 a lamb, project shows

Sheep farmers could increase ram values by more than £900 by investing in proven estimated breeding values (EBVs). This is according to the six-year results from the RamCompare project, published…

MEAT MARKETS AND PRICES

Analysis: How livestock auctions fit in today's meat markets

There is a certain nostalgia associated with trading livestock at a live mart – it is, after all, a system that has operated well for more than 200 years. But…

SHEEP

Does the UK have too many sheep breeds?

Over the centuries a spectrum of breeds has evolved in Britain, from fast-growing, prolific lowland types to hardier, single-bearing ewes for the uplands. According to the National Sheep Association (NSA),…

LIVESTOCK MARKETING

What farmers need to know about livestock sales this year

Covid-19 has shaken up the way livestock sales can take place, with social-distancing rules making it difficult to operate as normal in livestock markets. Although the sale of breeding stock…

MEAT MARKETS AND PRICES

Coronavirus: Consumer appetite for grass-fed meat surges

The coronavirus pandemic has rocked food supply chains, with British beef and sheep farmers facing disruption caused by irrational buying in supermarkets and the loss of the food service market.…

BREEDING AND FERTILITY

Lim-gate: What next for EBVs?

The exposure of errors relating to the registration of birth dates and parentage of cattle last year brought into question the legitimacy and accuracy of data feeding into Estimated Breeding…

LIVESTOCK MARKETING

Coronavirus: Online livestock auctions - how they work

Over the past week, we have seen markets close their doors due to the coronavirus outbreak, with others limiting the sale of stock to primestock, cull animals and store animals…

LIVESTOCK MARKETING

Calls mount to add quality measures to Europ grid

British red meat production cannot compete on price, so it must compete on quality, says 2018 Nuffield scholar and director of meat quality consultancy FQM Global, Caroline Mitchell. Speaking at…

LIVESTOCK MARKETING

What happens to wool once it leaves the farm

The UK’s national sheep flock supplies British Wool with 30 million kilograms of wool annually – but what happens to the fleeces once they leave the farm? Farmers Weekly visited the…