Lakeland holds January price in NI

Lakeland Dairies is the first milk processor in NI to declare a price for January and has opted to leave it unchanged from December.

It means that suppliers remain on a starting price of 43.8p/l, inclusive of a 3p/l winter bonus. It is the first time that Lakeland has paid a winter bonus on January milk, having announced last year its traditional 3p/l bonus will be extended from two to four months. It is also being paid across February supplies.

20 bulls at Chestnutt sale

The 13th annual sale of pedigree working bulls for Victor and David Chestnutt takes place on Friday 14 February in Ballymena Livestock Mart at approximately 1pm.

On offer this year are 10 Aberdeen Angus and 10 Charolais bulls.

The majority of the Angus animals are sired by Corlismore Superman, with others by Lisduff Dano. The Charolais bulls are by Crossane Oscar.

All the bulls have been commercially reared. They are not creep fed as calves and have been grazed in their first year. The animals have been vaccinated for BVD and Lepto and are sold guaranteed to work.

Bird flu housing order from next week

It will become compulsory to house all kept birds and poultry in NI from Monday 17 February 2025 as part of new avian influenza control measures.

A ban on poultry and bird gatherings is also to come into effect at the same time and a similar housing order is to be rolled out in the Republic of Ireland.

“It is expected that this order will be in place for up to eight weeks and will be kept under regular and close review by the Department,” said NI chief vet Brian Dooher.

The announcement follows on from an avian influenza outbreak at a nature reserve outside Magherafelt last week.

The premises is now closed to the public and a range of immediate restrictions were put in place around the site, including the humane culling of the remaining birds.

“It is of paramount importance that all bird keepers take appropriate action now to review and enhance their biosecurity measures to protect their birds from this highly infectious disease,” said Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir.

UFU hits factories over beef price gap

Local meat factory representatives “failed to offer a satisfactory explanation” during a recent meeting about the beef price gap between NI and Britain, the Ulster Farmers’ Union has said.

The UFU point to official reports for the end of January which show the price for an R3 steer in NI was 51p/kg lower than in Britain, equating to almost £200 on a 380kg carcass.

“Given that the majority of NI beef is sold to the UK market, adheres to quality assurance standards equivalent to Red Tractor and is labelled as British beef, this price disparity cannot be justified by additional transport costs alone,” said UFU deputy president Glenn Cuddy.