GENERAL
A year in which the market has moved on post foot and mouth. In fact there has been a record number of livestock go through the market but this has been because of the excellent numbers of both fat and store sheep sold. Looking at the figures pre foot and mouth, it is still the fat cattle that have got to show more improvement. More buyers have been using the market on a regular weekly basis as regards fat stock and the store sales have attracted buyers from a very wide area indeed. Obviously the mid term review and change in subsidy system will take some bedding down. Already farmers are saying they are going to sit still and see what happens. In the writer’s opinion, the fat cattle will be perhaps more money but whether or not they are going to be enough money to recover the £50.00 slaughter premium is doubtful.

The feel in the market at most sales this year has been excellent with rings full of buyers especially on store days and with plenty of farmers using the facilities again. We look forward to this continuing to be the case in the New Year.

FINISHED CATTLE – 22,697 (436 PER WEEK + 17.5%)
The numbers this year have been much more consistent. We have attracted both new vendors and new buyers. There is again a nice balance of buyers with some very large wholesalers buying for supermarkets together with smaller wholesalers and one or two family butchers still. All cattle can now be competed for once again from the very best to the worst, from the biggest to the smallest. This is the great advantage of selling live in that there should be competition for every beast that comes in the ring and ten cattle might go to five different homes. This is one way the deadweight cannot compete. We have attracted several vendors back from the deadweight and are encouraged by the general support this section in the market has received. We look forward to the opportunity, this coming year of pushing on a pace. Once again we have had our share of bad debts and when vendors sell perhaps they should remember that the money is guaranteed. If we are going to provide competition then we are bound to take hits. A lot of vendors don’t seem to realise how much money is involved and how much our exposure is especially to a meat sector where the profitability is wafer thin.

FINISHED SHEEP – 145,841 (2,804 PER WEEK + 7%)
The highlight in the fat sheep market this year has been the killing ewes. We have sold on many occasions 1,000 plus ewes each week. In the lamb section there have been buyers for all sorts. It is strange that with cattle everybody appreciates that those animals which have not got such good shape or conformation or finish will make less money, but in the sheep ring everybody still thinks that a 42 kilo lamb should make as much as the next 42 kilo lamb. This year we have seen more and more differential between those lambs that will for example fill an export order and those that will not. At the end of the year we have had plenty of lambs that are just thick enough.
A 3H is too fat for a lot of buyers now days and vendors are urged to take this into account when selecting their lambs for the market. Increased buying support has been present, certainly at different seasons. All we can do is find as many buyers as we can each and every week to compete for the lambs and guarantee a firm trade and Monday has provided that certainty right the way throughout this year. There have not been many weeks where Monday has not been a good a day as any to sell.

We are looking forward to driving on once again this year and hope that both clean lamb numbers and old ewe numbers will improve. We have received some criticism about keeping a red market. We make no apology for this because we cannot sell TB restricted cattle in a green market and there is so much TB about we cannot afford to loose TB restricted cattle from the fat ring. Not only this there are still a lot of people affected by the 6-day rule. There have been a couple of green markets this year, for example, one on Ram Monday and it was very difficult to hold our lamb numbers and cattle numbers. We ask vendors to appreciate our position but also to appreciate how much work and effort goes into securing a satisfactory trade each and every week.

STORE CATTLE – 13,537 (501 PER SPECIAL + 18.4%)
This has been the blue ribbon section of the market this year. Excellent trades and excellent numbers. There have been lots of sales where we have penned between 800 and 1,000 cattle and buyers have responded by travelling from a very long way. Critical to our success has been the fact that we have been able to sell all sorts of cattle, from the very best to dare I say some of the poorest. With the removal of the green and blue cards this year there is bound to be a period of settling down and there is bound to be a period of uncertainty. If the last store sale of 2004 is anything to go by there will still be plenty of people looking for cattle and therefore store vendors should look forward to the coming year rather than regarding it with apprehension. Costs will be critical. We cannot do anything about your costs of production, but what we can do is provide a cost effective service to offer your store cattle to as wide a company of buyers as we can. Not only does our catalogue go out to a huge mailing list but the website this year has attracted no end of people looking for stock on a weekly basis. There have literally been hundreds of hits on a daily basis on our agricultural website.

As part of the store sales there have been very good entries of cows and calves, bulling heifers and breeding bulls in particular and again these have added a nice variety to the cattle we sell. It has generated more interest again in the market place.

STORE SHEEP – 55,509 (2,056 PER SPECIAL + 23.3%)
Another section, which has shown, continued development throughout the year. Very good entries of both store lambs and ewes this year and plenty of people to bid for them. The season started with a bang with plenty of people looking for in lamb ewes and then couples. The store lamb season kicked in early with July sales attracting a keen level of demand and this has continued right the way through. As regards the ewe sales our trades have been as good as anywhere. Virtually a total clearance at all of the ewe sales and plenty of people to bid. Ram Monday saw an excellent entry of tups again and a trade to match.
There won’t be many sales about which offer purchasers a chance to secure such a wide range of rams at competitive prices. There equally will not be many sales around where vendors can offer their sheep to a greater company of buyers with no entry fee. Again we look forward to the store sheep section being continued to be developed this year because the store element in our market will become more and more important if the fat side comes under more pressure.

The Three Horseshoes has had a good season hard lambs and hardy breeding ewes attracted a good regular attendance of buyers and a trade to match. The small hill types were particularly well sold with specialist buyers attending most sales.

CALVES – 862 (32 PER SPECIAL +61%)
At last the calf market is coming back. Plenty of calves travelling a long way. It’s nice to see a good selection of calves every fortnight and plenty of people to bid on them. The success of this section again has been due to the fact that we have been able to sell the very best calves and some of the poorest at competitive figures.

CULLS – 1,628 (31 PER WEEK + 16.8%)
Cull numbers have been firm throughout the year. We can only do what we can do and we can only offer this service at a certain figure. If we have got to pay transport to get these animals to abattoirs and we are told by the Rural Payments Agency where the animals have to go then we are obviously tied into a certain transport figure. We cannot avoid this. We are looking forward to the opportunity of selling over thirty month cattle through the ring again and looking forward the opportunity of taking our gloves off and getting to grips with the barren cow market. It is a great pity that this will be delayed until August of this year as opposed to being January, because if the thirty month rule had been removed at the same time as the subsidy arrangements altered then the market would have found it’s feet at a much quicker level and the demand for barren cows could have been in fact much better than it might be later on in the year. We will have to wait and see.

CONCLUSION
This last year has seen Ludlow Livestock market move on and we hope that 2005 will see the same. It seems an age since foot and mouth but we are still left with some of the effects of it. The 6-day rule is with us to stay it would appear and the other regulations, which have their base in foot and mouth, will not be released. Indeed it is rumoured that there will be a campaign to sharpen up bio security at all markets in the coming year. These factors together with the increased number of TB restricted cattle and the fact that the ministry will not let vendors bring fat cattle to the market if they haven’t had a TB test for 60 days all add complications and difficulties to the normal trading picture. A trading picture in itself, which is difficult enough. Still no profitability in the wholesale meat sector which has resulted in some firms folding this year and therefore reduced competition or potentially so. Still a very strong position of certain retailers in the market place. We must hope that effective export of beef becomes a reality because this again could be our saviour. Export gives the option, even with currency fluctuations.

The sheep market has shown how important export is and the beef markets still needs the lift that export could give it.

As other yards have closed in the area, we must try to attract more clients. I don’t believe McCartneys have been given enough credit by a lot of members of the farming community as to how much money has been invested in markets by the firm over the last ten years. Other auctioneers have chosen either to sit still and wait for council’s to build them markets or have simply sold sites and taken the money out of the agricultural side of their business. We don’t ask for three cheers but perhaps if you looked at the situation in other parts of the country where there is at least 100 miles between livestock markets then you would appreciate the option and the flexibility that all of McCartneys Markets gives the agricultural community in the areas in which we are based.

We take this opportunity of wishing all of our clients A Happy and peaceful 2005.

John Uffold
Chairman