Are farmers realising how little of the animal ends up in retail chiller? Attitudes over pricing show signs of change Livestock producers' simplistic interpretation of farmgate to retail price spreads has long been a source of frustration for the major supermarket operators, who claim they are unfairly accused of profiteering. But there are faint signs of a change in attitude among cattle suppliers. One indication is an attempt by the National Beef Association to dissuade cattle finishers from basing selling decisions only on the deadweight price offered by slaughterers. "I would advise all finishers who are selling to different buyers to compare the income per animal," is the tip from NBA vice chairman Frank Momber. Hampshire based Momber tells fellow producers he learnt an expensive lesson by selling suckler bred bulls to two buyers at different prices. Superficially the best returns were from the batch sold to a mainstream supermarket supplier at 168p per kg deadweight. But "after studying our kill sheets, we found that the best payers were those that went through a nearby abattoir at just 162p". The better total return from the lower deadweight price was, of course, a consequence of differing killing out percentages, 58 for the bulls sold to the slaughterer buying kidney knob and channel fat against only 53 under the supermarket supplier's tougher ex-KKCF regime. Yet Momber's statement does not brandish this aggressively as evidence of the supermarkets or their supplier processors deliberately misleading farmers ­ an approach one would have expected from the NBA a year or two ago. Although the NBA is no friend of the multiples, its opinion of direct deadweight procurement is noticeably less hostile these days (The Grocer, February 23, Letters, p23). One possible explanation, suggested to The Grocer by a major supermarket supplier, is the enlightening effect of deadweight pricing combined with the more rigorous dressing specifications: perhaps these are making farmers realise how small a proportion of the live animal ends up in the retail chiller cabinet. Rump steak promoted at around £6 per kg retail, for instance, seems less extortionate even to the most hostile farmer when compared with a deadweight price of 160p or more than with a 90p liveweight price. Next challenge for the supermarkets, presumably, is to find a way of explaining to farmers the meaning of saleable meat yield'. {{MEAT }}