I NEED to preface this article by stating that it really only refers to the minority of livestock producers, but some of the standards of livestock presented at markets by some producers leave observers shaking their collective heads in sheer amazement.
Last week's Dublin lamb market provided an ideal example of thoughtless management of prime lambs. A draft of crossbred lambs suitable for export were so badly stained that one prominent buyer quite stridently told the auctioneer that he should advise the client that he had cost himself $20 a head, because he had not bothered to yard them early enough to empty-out before being transported to sale.
When you consider that it was a large consignment of 90-odd lambs, you would think that a loss of about $1800 would be incentive enough to rethink the way things should be done. The vocal buyer explained to me after the sale that his company's buyers had been instructed not to bid on stained lambs at any cost.
I am beginning to despair about the intellect of some sheep and lamb producers. If people are serious about breeding and selling prime crossbred and Merino lambs, there should be some basic selling rules seared into their brains.
The first rule of engagement with buyers is that if you try to sneak something into the stock you are selling that is not up to scratch, you will be caught - and if you get away with it once, you will be punished so hard for subsequent efforts that the original gain becomes irrelevant.
Any regular attendee at Dublin lamb sale will realise that a bloke like Midfield Meat principal Colin McKenna can spot a cripple or a hogget in a pen of supposed prime lambs from a distance of 100 metres And he has no hesitation stopping the sale for an on-the-spot check where he invariably wins the argument with the auctioneer. This halts the flow of the sale and seriously downgrades the price of the lambs in that particular pen.
This time of year highlights a perennial saleyard problem - the first green pick growing after pretty good general rains shows in the worst fashion how few cockies bother to crutch their sale lambs. Once again, a buyer brought the problem to my attention. He urged me to get the message through to producers who should know better anyway.
This is not a new phenomenon. I clearly remember an article on the back page of the Stock Journal from at least five years ago, urging producers to clean up their act.
*Full report in Stock Journal, June 14 issue, 2012.
