CALF_News_December_2021_January_2022

39 CALF News • December 2021 | January 2022 • www.calfnews.net W ith Glasgow, Scotland being the host city for the latest COP climate summit of world leaders, our media has been dominated by the event and the subsequent pledges that have come out of it. Agriculture as a whole is fighting to hold its important place in the challenge of not only feeding the nation, but ensur- ing we have food security within our own borders. Conversations at every level of the beef supply chain have been more focused on the environmental footprint than ever experienced, and we have seen retailers and processors pushing producers to increase the use of methane-inhibiting additives built into the diets of finishing animals in feedlots. How do the men and women who breed and raise beef cattle engage and move with the quest for net zero? One of the biggest barriers to over- come is standardizing how a farm is evaluated. Consequently, establishing a baseline to move forward from is very difficult. If environmental goals mean better economic efficiencies, we have a winner for everyone. Reducing days to harvest is a key factor; it fits into this category and is easily evaluated. A bigger challenge is to have the on-farm equip- ment to evaluate feed conversion. It certainly is a priority with leading genetic companies and some leading farmers to install equipment that can provide group and individual cattle feed conversion ratios, following the example set by the monogastric animal world. Hopefully it’s just short term, but the United Kingdom’s (UK) pig industry is right in the middle of a crisis. Many producers are faced with the dilemma of euthanizing pigs on-farm. This crisis has been brought about by a combination of labor shortages due to a reliance on foreign labor in abattoirs and meat- packing facilities, COVID infections and a lack of slaughter capacity, which has resulted in stock building up on-farm with nowhere to go. Couple this with the highest feed prices every recorded and it is understandable why all livestock pro- ducers are currently nervous that these labor and distribution issues will affect more sectors. Another example of the impact process- ing facilities are having in how we farm in the United Kingdom can be seen in the dairy industry. There is stability with dairy cow numbers; however, the industry has become extremely localized. My own area, in the UK’s northeast, has recently seen 70 percent of milk producers forced to leave the industry after the closure of the local processing facility, having been given just 12 months’ notice to exit. It is a sad fact that when the wider sup- port infrastructure that is essential for an industry just disappears. It is very difficult for those left producing to do so profit- ably and efficiently, and history tells us that when it is lost, you rarely get it back. This has resulted in a further concen- tration of large units in the mainly west of the country and nearly nothing in the east. There was a time when the avail- able land type and climate dictated what type of farming took place in a location, but times have changed. The United Kingdom has a driving-time restriction of eight hours in any 24-hour period, which dramatically restricts the ability to actually connect with an abattoir or processing facility. As we’ve seen with the dairy industry, this can override any natural attributes an area may have. The world price of gas and urea has seen some difficult decisions being made as all arable and ruminant livestock farmers rely on the use of inorganic fertilizers. The current price has tripled over the past few months, causing some to close their eyes and purchase to guar- antee supply, while others have stood back, hoping for a drop in price before needing it in the spring. There is nothing new in swings in input costs. The scale of the rise of fertil- izer and grain prices has not only put pressure on the traditional transactional way of selling cattle (price on the day of sale), but also the integrated supply model that most of the beef from dairy animals are in.With the UK’s major retailers and processors all having an increased percentage of their supply coming this way, success will rely on passing on the increase up the chain and, ultimately, to the consumer, not only to cover costs but to deliver a profit for reinvestment. The most sensible way forward for beef production will be looking at link- ing the best available genetics to deliver the lowest feed conversion and harvest- ing at target weight and grade – at a younger age. Getting the bottom one- third of cattle into target and, ultimately, profit is the best way for us all to engage in our climate-change journey to deliver the net-zero targets that have been set by the government and all companies in the supply chain.  By David MacKenzie Contributing Editor Beef Under Attack