Farming Forum UK

Hi to all fellow forum members

I hope this thread will be interesting and many of you will join in, i have been in the meat industry for the past 15 years all more and would like to discuss alot on different meat cuts and basically getting your views as well as mine on what is good value and what is not good value for the buying customer.

starting with Lamb

Well i certainly wouldn't want any of you to rush out and buy lamb in any form at the moment as its very expensive wholesale price is nearly £5 p/kg thats double on last years price so expect to pay alot of money for legs of lamb unless you wish to buy supermarket New zealand legs but quality is hit and miss.

I wonder if any of our sheep lads are seeing the increased prices ?

Is mutton the best sheep meat for a stew ? Do many people still buy it ?

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Lovely, lovely, lovely....hahahahaha

Used to get roughly forty pounds for a lamb for many many years. In the last twelve months or so that's changed to roughly fifty pounds. So that's a 25% increase at the start of the production line. Most welcome increase after years of stagnation. But certainly not doubled.

As for the best cuts. I can't comment. I can't stand the stuff.

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And plenty in the tank.

Afraid to say buy new zealand as it is all available and it is dam good. Usualy buy legs and racks or packs of chops.

It is a welcome increase in sheep prices for the farmer with lambs making £70-80-90 in the market depending on which market you go too. ewes are making good money too and the halal trade seems to be holding up yet killing number have dropped alittle.

mutton is certainly making a come back on the english menu with many local restaurants buying neck fillets / diced shoulder!
slow roasted leg of mutton is fantastic if cooked right and hung well by the butcher of course!

Yes 75% of new zealand lamb is good but you do get the odd batch which makes its way over here mainly australian mixed in with the new zealand stuff. UK Abattoirs which kill for the supermarkets in this country will cut there kill down by 50% and unpack imported new zealand lamb for the rest of the day!

Thats not the first time i have heard this.

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Lovely, lovely, lovely....hahahahaha

They don't label it as UK meat do they? I will only buy meat and dairy from these shores

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keep honking, I'm reloading

Almost, i bet.
It will say something like 'packaged in the UK' with the UK bit in bold letters and a Union Jack....

Very decieving.

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Lovely, lovely, lovely....hahahahaha

That is what concerns me. I have nothing against kiwi's, apart from the obvious accusations, but can't bring my self to buy their produce when we grow sheep here. I won;t buy Scotch beef in the village butcher. It's a forking long way to Scotchland from here and a neighbour has beef cows. Why can't I buy them?

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keep honking, I'm reloading

afraid to say that for beef it is nigh on always South American. Bloody good too. Why the ...k cant uK manage to export stuff here.

our butcher has a sign outside saying where all meat has come from and its always within 20 miles

one saturday in sainsburys i was wanting some bacon and it was too late for butchers all they had was danish i actually asked where the british was

blank looks all round

huh cornflakes again then

I can't vouch for the labelling but we used to kill around 1000 lambs then after lunch we would unload at least 2 imported containers full of new zealand lamb which would then be carted off into the packing room. it put use out of pocket because the more we killed the more bonus we got paid but we ended up working longer hours for basic pay! but i saw the light and left!

most shocking of all was watching a bunch of agency workers unpacking meat that had been packed and labelled wrong!

So I.E. they cut and packed lambs on a monday sent it out to the distrubution centre (arrived on tuesday) which then sent it out to the major super markets (arrived on weds) for then have to be returned to centre (thursday) and then returned back to the abattoir (friday) due to wrong labels etc! what did the abattoir do?? take it out of the packet and repackage and label it up to be sent back for retail in the supermarkets on the monday?? this turn around must of taken at least 7 days extra !!

Its ok him saying its within 20miles of the shop but where did the cattle/lambs/pig etc actually been grazed? you can buy a beef animal from scotland bring it down to devon keep it on the farm for a few weeks and have it killed and butchered up and claim its southwest beef ?????

theres an abattoir near me that claim to kill southwest beef for supermarkets, but its funny how once or twice a week an irish plated livestock wagon drives past late at night with at least 25-30 cattle on it heading towards the abattoir???

Father-in-law (to be) was telling me at the weekend that cull ewes are on fire at the moment. Most of what he says tends to go in one ear and out the other so I may have got this wrong, but I seem to think that his averaged £110. Think this was at Brock.

Who is paying this kind of money for old ewes?

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D1 KED