Organic beef prices are now “on par” with conventional prices leaving some organic farmers concerned about cattle leaking out of the system at marts.

Farmers based in Munster found that R grade bullocks have been going for €8.40/kg and O grade for €8.20/kg in marts compared to a factory price of €7.60/kg.

Chair of the Limerick Tipperary organic farmers group, Robert Barton, described it as “a time of madness for beef [prices]” which has left many farmers less incentivised to convert to organic.

Tom Ryan, Limerick-based organic farmer, said that in the short term, conventional beef farmers are getting better prices.

Pulled ahead

“For a while, they were on par with one another but [conventional beef] has pulled ahead a small bit,” he said.

“Back in the day, you were getting up to €1/kg more, the gap has closed a bit and for a while. No one expected the jump to be as big.

“The price of cattle in the mart seems to be ahead of what’s in the factory anyway, so that leads into more leakage.”

Due to the strong competition for stock, conventional farmers are more willing to buy organic cattle, leaving the organic farmers with a limited pool to replace numbers.

Barton said it is becoming impossible to buy in organic replacements.

“Because of [beef prices], there’s major leakage out of the [organic] system. A lot of the time, you’d get as much in a conventional mart as an organic mart. The conventional [farmers] are wolfing for cattle and they’re picking off the organic cattle.”

Ryan added: “You’d sell the cattle. Replacing them is a problem. The price being a problem is one, but to actually put your hands on cattle organically is a problem; but that’s true of conventional as well.”