Breakfast club serves hot topics

Carter Jonas property consultants organised another successful Shropshire Farmers Breakfast Club meeting at the Albrighton Hall Hotel.

Following a hearty breakfast, 30 Shropshire farmers listened to guest speaker, Peter Jones of Peter Jones Livestock from Tarporley.

Mr Jones spoke of the his firm's activities, their main markets, sources of stock and core business which are calves, reared calves, store cattle, finished stock, organic stores/OLMC (Organic Livestock Marketing Co-operative) and breeding stock.

Some discussion took place as to which beef systems suit and the costs which might be incurred setting up a beef enterprise. Calf rearing is a relatively inexpensive enterprise to set up, however, the returns reflect this - due to the quick through put cash flow is positive, he said.

Reared calves and stores, respectively, require greater capital investment to set up suitable systems and the impact on a current non-beef enterprise would be much more significant.

The price of grain, particularly barley was discussed, Mr Jones was of the opinion that barley at £60 a tonne, was well worth feeding to fatten up stores, however, at £160 plus per tonne one had to be more circumspect.

Peter spoke of technology used - digital photography was a very useful tool that has transformed how his firm operates.

Photographs can be e-mailed to prospective purchasers very quickly ensuring what one sees is what one wants and gets, he added

Despite the current market place there are opportunities for newcomers to the beef sector - the amount of stock coming in from Ireland has fallen off.

These opportunities might be calf rearing, growing cattle to sell as stores, growing cattle to finish, producing breeding replacements, suckled calf production - breeding cows and intensively finishing cattle either purchased as reared calves or stores.

Mr Jones pointed out the key elements for success in beef, however, most of the elements would apply to many other enterprises too - planning long term and short term budgets, be versatile, not too many beef systems, keep it simple (KISs), identify your market, allow for adequate investment, allow for adequate building handling facilities, keep labour costs down and one must have adequate management accounts.

Concluding the presentation Mr Jones spoke of price trends, despite the rigours of foot and mouth and blue tongue the price trend is upward and in 2009 Mr Jones is hopeful that prices will have caught up with 1995 levels and even exceed them.

Clearly the price of grain and other inputs have risen too, therefore margins are being continually squeezed.

During the question nd answer session, Mr Jones was asked about auction markets and their future. Mr Jones was adamant that they have a core function, leading prices and continuing to set trends.

The larger markets, such as Carlisle, Longtown, Ludlow and Market Drayton are the more influential.

Blue tongue was discussed and Mr Jones suggested it would be best if the whole country was declared a bluetongue zone, then at least the field would be level once again

The next meeting is on Wednesday, February 13, when a speaker from Belton Cheese will be speaking about cheese manufacturing, milk processing, branding and value-added.