National Beef Association wants to encourage a barricade against imports' Producers put cash into fast finishing systems More cheap beef for further-processors and product manufacturers is on the way as British farmers begin to invest in fast finishing systems for dairy calves. That seems to be the message from the auction rings, where prices are rising for the plain black and white calves literally worthless a few months ago following abolition of the subsidised culling scheme. Calves given away or illicitly killed and buried on farms immediately after birth late last year would now be worth at least £15 a head ­ not much, but enough to justify the cost of transport to auction. And with a bit of extra care before sale the best of them could have attracted bids of £50 in today's market. This strengthening calf trade is being emphasised in statements by producer lobbying group the National Beef Association, because it wants to encourage manufacturing meat output growth as "a beef cattle barricade against imports". Boosting supply to an already weak market might seem an illogical way of trying to protect home producers against the price pressure caused by increasing competition from Irish, Continental and South American beef, but the NBA's campaign to encourage finishing of the surplus dairy calves is supported by at least some of the major processors and retailers. Several slaughtering companies are experimenting with contracts for calf fattening, claiming the exhaustion of intervention stocks has opened a gap in the market and import substitution should be easier than trying to rebuild export business. {{MEAT }}

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