Kills were very strong during December with most plants making arrangements to process reasonable numbers of cattle in the week after Christmas prior to the New Year. The cattle that have been killed were very heavy and as a result there were a lot of 36kg+ hides produced.
The dung season has well and truly arrived and significant dung allowances are now being made for hides from Ireland. The appearance of the dung has caused some Italian tanners to shift away from Ireland and source elsewhere. This has put significant pressure on the heavier end of Irish hides in late December and into January, as the recent rise in prices was driven by demand from Italy.
At the time of writing, it was expected that the new import duty would be enforced from 1/1/06. However, there have been few hides going to China from Ireland in the past six months so this is not expected to have any effect in the short term.
The other big news in December concerns the finish of the over thirty month scheme for culling cattle from the herd in the UK and Northern Ireland.
Prices at the end of December were as follows:
36kg+……………………….…….75p
31/35.5 …………………………….. 85p
26/30.5 …………………………….. 90p
22/25.5 …………………………….. 95p
The other big news in December concerns the finish of the over thirty month scheme for culling cattle from the herd in the UK and Northern Ireland.
This scheme will end on January 20, 2006, and will be replaced by a new scheme known as the older cattle disposal scheme. The meat from this scheme will be destroyed and the hides will be salted and stored in two warehouses, one in England and one in Northern Ireland. They will be stored until legislation to allow the hides to go for tanning is passed, but this is not expected to be passed before the summer.
Meat from animals which were born post 1996 and which have been tested for BSE has already gone on to the market in the UK but is not expected to be allowed to go for export before late March 2006 at the earliest. It is still unclear when the hides will be allowed to go for export, but 2006 will see wet-salted cows back on the international market from the UK for the first time in ten years.
Lambskin prices firmed as all outstanding stocks of skins were cleared from warehouses. Doubleface went for £2 ex yard and fellmongers £1.70 ex yard.