Thirty month scheme ends

January 20 saw the finish of the over thirty month scheme whereby cattle over thirty months of age were slaughtered, the carcases destroyed and the hides had to be wet-blued within the UK. For almost ten years this has enabled some UK tanners to source mainly cows at very competitive prices. This scheme was replaced with a new scheme known as the older cattle destruction scheme and it applies to cattle born before 1996. The carcases from these cattle are destroyed and at the time of writing the hides were being salted and held pending a decision that would require a change in the current legislation that would allow the hides to be tanned in the UK. The consequences of these changes are that a ready supply of value hides that were going to UK tanners has been suddenly stopped and some of the UK tanners targeted Ireland as a source of replacement raw material. Therefore, the market in Ireland firmed in January and February somewhat against expectations and against the trend in hide prices in Europe. This was despite a cooling in interest from Italian tanners at this time of the year when Irish hides normally have a lot of dung. However, January turned out to be one of the driest since records started to be kept and the dung on the hides was and is significantly less than what is considered normal at this time of year. Therefore, despite kills running at reasonable levels hide prices firmed and by the end of February the asking prices were as follows: 36kg+…................................................................… 80p 31/35.5 ....................................................................... 90p 26/30.5 ...................................................................... 95p 22/25.5 ..................................................................... 1.05 Heavy cows were £26 ex yard per piece. Some sellers are expecting the market to continue to firm as kills usually start to decline towards the end of March. Hogget/lambskin prices also increased substantially off their lows from Christmas time. Chinese interest allied to low kills combined to lift prices by 70c of a euro. Good size and long wool is very attractive to the Chinese. Doubleface went for £2.90 delivered China and fellmongers £2.70 delivered China.