AN INTERESTING argument developed yesterday at Beef Expo 2007 in Skipton, Yorkshire, writes Ewan Pate, the farming editor.

The event, organised by the National Beef Association, obviously focused on the future of the British beef industry, but there were two distinct schools of thought on how to reach viability.

Was it to be government support or simply producing beef more efficiently?

At the pre-event dinner the speaker, retired Kendall lawyer Michael Winkley, made a call for the Government to back the British beef industry.

The 400-strong audience responded with little more than polite applause.

It was obvious that the industry leaders saw salvation more in their own efforts to improve efficiency and find new markets than in appeal to politicians.

This was in considerable contrast to the approach of the NBA themselves.

At a press conference chairman Duff Burrell and chief executive, the soon-to-retire Robert Forster, stressed there was a two-pronged approach to their policies.

One was increasing efficiency, but in what Robert Forster called an “uncompromising statement,” the other was a call for the Government to relax the battle against inflation as far as beef prices were concerned.

Duff Burrell said, “HM Treasury’s relentless pursuit of low inflation is blocking food price rises and preventing the agricultural industry from raising sales income to replace the former coupled subsidy payments.”

The NBA top team believe that the Government keeps up weekly pressure on supermarkets to keep food prices down as a strategy to suppress inflation and that they should relax their approach with beef.

Others argued that competition between the big supermarkets had a bigger part to play in keeping the lid on prices and that the Government role was limited.

However, Mr Forster argued heatedly that he was not arguing for high inflation but for a one-off “jump in beef prices.”

Pushed as to what magnitude of rise would be needed, Duff Burrell, himself a commercial Aberdeen Angus producer, said, “We would be looking for high-specification cattle hitting all the buttons on quality to be making 270 pence per kilo deadweight.”

This would imply an increase of at least 50p per kilo from present market levels.

NBA member and Cumbrian farmer John Geldard took a slightly more pragmatic view.

He was delighted to have two sons now in his business.

“They know they are in a transitional phase and that direct support will be a thing of the past by 2012,” he said.

“They also know that the price gap won’t be closed by retail inflation and that they have to be more cost efficient.

“However, we do have to see steps to improve price as well or these young men are going to have their confidence in the beef industry badly shaken.”

That approach was probably the one which had encouraged beef producers from across the country to converge on Skipton.

The breed societies were busy, as were the technical stands, with everyone looking for something that would give them an edge on beef production.

Former beef farmer of the year, Simon Frost, Youlegrave, Derbyshire, outlined the system which had put him in the top echelons for profitability.

He argued for greater use of the Holstein Friesian cross as a replacement beef heifer.

This is an option rarely considered nowadays because of the extreme dairy characteristics of the breed.

“I don’t agree with that,” he said. “Suckled calves will only grow well with plenty of milk and that has to come from somewhere in the genetic make up.

“These dairy cows have good bone and long loins.

“Crossed with a Limousin they produce a replacement heifer that is not too big.

“Crossed, then, with a fast-growing terminal sire such as a Charolais, they have the ability to produce a fast-growing calf.”