Beef on a steady recovery

The cattle industry seems to be slowly recovering from the prolonged drought that the country faced over the past years, with slaughtering numbers and producer prices that are increasing while the quality and weight of the animals are both also picking up.

According to Meatco, last year was a relatively difficult year, with a sharp decrease in the availability of slaughter cattle and the quality of the carcasses due to the drought.

“The losses of the Zeranol issue had a huge financial impact as it added to costs at the feedlot and consequently affected throughput and efficiency for throughput at the factory,” the company said.

The Directorate of Veterinary Services closed down the Okapuka feedlot on 2 September last year after detecting Zeranol, a growth hormone, in samples taken from cattle for the second time in 12 months.

According to Meatco its only operating factory in Windhoek is however currently keeping up with its operations, since it decided to turn its Okahandja factory into an international export cold-storage facility.

Meatco says that it saw the lowest volumes of cattle slaughtered in January due to the closure of the Windhoek factory from 16 December last year to 16 January 2017.

The decision to slaughter only one week in January 2017 was necessitated by the low numbers of cattle booked for slaughter.

However, for February and March, there has been an increase in cattle numbers and according to Meatco, the factory had to slaughter four to five days per week respectively, each month.

During February, a total 5 448 cattle were slaughtered and in March, 7 021 cattle were slaughtered.

The factory during this period operated within the acceptable plant availability, says Meatco.

“Downtime was caused by the recent ammonia leakage that resulted in three days of no production.”

The average carcass weight delivered during February and March also showed an increase and this can be attributed to the good rains received this year which resulted in better grazing for cattle.

During February the average carcass weight was 22.85kg while in March the average carcass weight was 23.67kg.

Furthermore the company says that producer's average prices have increased by N$2.09 per kilogramme year-on-year.

Meatco however says that producers should be aware that the producer price is affected by the exchange rate, cattle volumes and market prices. However, other factors that have an influence include sales movement, production volumes, product quality, production seasonality, timing markets and distribution costs associated with getting the product to the market.

“Because of these factors, producers need to view the average producer price holistically and not just in terms of fluctuations in the exchange rate.

Meatco added that its performance last year was affected by many factors including the exchange rate, cattle volumes and the Zeranol issue when the Okapuka was closed for several weeks, while the European Union and United Kingdom markets remained stable.”

Meatco added that it continues to do its level best to keep producer prices stable and competitive.

“It is important that we try our level best to accommodate booked deliveries in the coming peak season as we strive to maximise our throughput. In addition, producers are urged to avoid short notice cancellations as this can have a negative influence on the daily and monthly planning of the abattoir's operations,” said Meatco