LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION (GRASSLAND) (Hansard, 26 November 1951)

§ Captain J. A. L. Duncan (South Angus)
Although the hour is late, I think it is worth while having a short discussion on an agricultural topic, particularly as very little of the debate on the Gracious Speech was devoted to agricultural matters. It will give an opportunity to my hon. Friend the Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture to make his maiden speech as a Minister, and we shall welcome his approach to the Despatch Box for the first time. I am particularly glad that he has been chosen by the Government as an English Minister to answer a Scottish Member, because the subject I wish to raise is a United Kingdom subject and not solely confined to Scotland.
The subject that has been put down for this debate is the better use of grass, but I do not want to discuss silage, electric fencing, methods of grazing, and that sort of thing tonight. I want to discuss how we can get more meat from the grass which is growing in all parts of our country.
Two things are clear. First, that the prospect of obtaining more high protein feedingstuffs from abroad at economic prices is pretty dim. Secondly, that we are producing less meat from more cattle than pre-war. I have quoted these figures before, but as this is a new Parliament perhaps they are worth quoting again. In June, 1939, we had 8,872,000 cattle, and in June, 1951, 10,473,000 cattle, but the amount of meat is less. The weekly average which in 1939 was 21,000 tons is now based on eight months of 1951 and is only 15,000 tons.
These figures are not completely comparable because we have to take into consideration the number of sheep and pigs. Sheep are down 6 million on 1939 and pigs 500,000. It is, I think, disturbing that although there has been a big increase in cattle the amount of meat we are getting from them is less. A further disturbing fact which has arisen from the September return is that even now cattle are also declining in addition 1081 to the sheep and pigs. The problem I want to raise, therefore, is how to get more meat in this country for our own people from our own grass.
The traditional method of our farmers, particularly in Scotland, was to feed and fatten one lot of cattle on the grass in the autumn and to feed another lot of cattle in "courts" on high-protein feeding-stuffs, but neither of these methods are now economic. The first method is no longer economic because of the price structure of the Ministry of Food. The prices vary not only according to grade, but also according to the time of the year, from about 119s. to 132s. for the special grade. But nature provides that the cattle should be fattened in August, September and October at the lowest prices that the Ministry of Food picks. Thus fattening cattle according to nature has ceased to be economic.
As regards the latter method of fattening cattle in "courts" in the winter, that has become uneconomic owing to the high cost of high protein feedingstuffs, even if the farmer can get them at all. Incidentally, the prices of British cattle are rather interesting if compared with those of Canadian and American cattle. I have some figures which show that the Grade A price for British cattle per cwt. live weight was 109s. in November, 1951, but the same type of cattle on 13th October, 1951, was 257s. 6d. in Canada in Toronto, and 292s. 8d. in the U.S.A. in Chicago per live cwt. I do not think that the British farmer is being adequately remunerated compared with the U.S. and Canadian prices. What are my suggestions to deal with this situation?
The first suggestion I make is that we should alter the price structure of the Ministry of Food so that it becomes profitable once more to fatten cattle off the grass in July and October. What I want to see is two rises in the price structure during the year, one in the autumn to encourage the British farmer to fatten his cattle at the natural time of the year and use the maximum amount of British grass to do so; and that there should be the encouragement to do so by a rise in the price structure in the autumn. Then the price could come down and rise again in May at the time when those who wish to carry on court feeding could be encouraged to dispose of theirs.
1082 But, as we must expect if we follow this policy, a very large number of cattle will be thrown on the market in the autumn. It is obviously necessary that there should be methods of disposing of them and keeping them for the time being. We all remember what happened last autumn when the 2s. 2d. meat ration came along for a few weeks. The butcher in very many cases was unable to dispose of the total amount of fresh meat allocated to him, and had in fact to waste good meat.
An essential further part of my suggestion is, therefore, that cold storage in this country should be stepped up to deal with the surplus, to keep it for such a period as would be necessary for the Ministry of Food not only to level out the meat rations throughout the autumn but also to leave a surplus which could be used for the next three or six months to keep up the meat supplies from home sources.
The third effect of my suggestion is that "court" feeding should be switched to wintering store cattle; in other words, instead of trying to go against nature by fattening cattle in the winter months with high protein feedingstuffs which do not exist, we should feed our store cattle in the winter on things like straw and turnips and silage which do not fatten but which will keep them alive until they can be put on the grass to fatten in the summer.
The fourth thing is that, in so far as farmers get feedingstuffs at all nowadays, those feedingstuffs should be diverted not only for maintaining milk production but for the feeding of more pigs and poultry. If we want more meat the biggest opportunity for increasing meat production quickly is in the production of more pigs.
I have spoken long enough, and it is very late at night, and I want to give time to the Minister to reply, and, therefore, I shall not elaborate my suggestion any more, but I will say this in conclusion, that farming is a business, and, like every business, must change in changing circumstances. What I suggest is a big change in what has been the habit of farmers ever since the beginning of the war, but it is one which, I believe, will keep the profitability of feeding cattle and fattening cattle for the British market, and would give the British people more and better home meat.

§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture (Mr. G. R. H. Nugent)
I welcome the constructive suggestion of my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for South Angus (Captain Duncan). We all appreciate that today there is urgent consumer need for more meat. The chance of increasing the quantity available by increased imports is obviously not good. The supplies coming on the world market are tending to shrink, and our financial difficulties will obviously make it more difficult for us to get what is going. Any suggestion which will increase the production from home sources is worthy of careful consideration. My hon. and gallant Friend's suggestion is that since grass is the one product on our farms which is really in surplus, it could be converted into additional beef by fattening more cattle off that grass in the autumn. He believes that this will result it greater production of beef.
I have no difficulty in agreeing with his first premise that concentrated feedstuffs are in short supply. Indeed, in the light of our present financial difficulties it is going to take us all our time to maintain even the present level of supply. The position is not helped by the fact that there is a tendency for home grown cereals to decrease in quantity rather than increase. With the limited supplies available milk, pigs and poultry must have the first priority, and there cannot be much available for cattle except for calves.
I also agree with the premise that there is plenty of grass on farms, and there can be a great deal more if the modern technique of grass growing was more generally employed. A more generous use of fertilisers, the use of high grade herbage seeds and controlled management would all help in this matter.
It is true that this surplus grass could be turned into additional beef, but even the survey which my hon. and gallant Friend made showed some of the formidable difficulties that are involved. For instance, the grass fattened cattle would all come on for slaughtering in the autumn. At the present time the peak of our slaughtering is in the autumn, even though the present seasonal scale of prices is weighted against autumn production. In the four months, August, September, October and November of last year, 1084 50 per cent. of the total killings were carried out. Any further increase in offerings of cattle during these months would cause a breakdown.
There are two major problems which would need to be solved to cope with any increased slaughtering of cattle in the autumn. The first is that more slaughter houses would need to be built. At the present time the peak slaughterings in the autumn can be managed by the existing slaughter houses. If there were any increase in slaughtering considerable additional slaughter house capacity would have to be built. At present the highest week's slaughtering in November is about five times as great as the lowest week's slaughtering in June. That means that for the greater part of the year the slaughter houses are under used, and the fact that they are not fully used for the greater part of the year adds something like one-third to the total cost of slaughtering.
The second point is that any substantial increase in home killed meat supplies in the autumn probably could not be taken up by the consumer. I think my hon. and gallant Friend is right there. By careful organisation the Ministry of Food has been able to hold off the supply of imported meat during the peak period, but any substantial increase in home-produced supplies then would therefore have to go into cold storage. At present there is not the plant available.
Our refrigeration arrangements are geared up to deal with the pre-war situation which was designed for limited periods of imported frozen meat, and our storage plant is adequate for preserving that by keeping it at a low temperature. But in order to freeze down carcases to start with, more powerful gear is needed, and it would be necessary to erect a substantial amount of cold storage to carry this carcase capacity, and expensive refrigeration plant as well.

§ Mr. Gerald Williams (Tonbridge)
My hon. Friend says it would be necessary to erect this plant. That is probably the gist of the whole argument. Is he prepared to do it?

§ Mr. Nugent
Having defined the problem confronting us, I was about to make such comment as I could offer. Of course, the building of these cold stores and the installation of suitable refrigeration plant 1085 would be an expensive capital expenditure, but before I answer that there is a further point I ought to make. In the process of refrigeration the quality of the meat is considerably reduced, and in fact the home-produced frozen meat would probably be of a lower quality than the imported frozen meat.

§ Captain Duncan
My suggestion was not to build new cold storage capacity, but to step up the power of the existing refrigerating plant, which would not be so expensive, as my hon. Friend was saying.

§ Mr. Nugent
I am sure my hon. and gallant Friend is not right in his premise. First of all, there is no spare cold storage space available. A rather different kind of cold storage space is required for the purpose of storage over a number of months. Existing storage space is designed for a short period of weeks. The carcases are hung close together. Such capacity as we have is fully employed at certain times in storing imported meat. Considerable additional capacity would be required and the refrigerating plant would need to be something completely different to anything we have at present in order to freeze down the carcases.
The solution to these problems depends on fairly heavy capital expenditure, and in the present circumstances, in competition with the re-armament programme, I am afraid they are bound to have fairly low priority. In the meantime, it is obviously impossible to move on the lines suggested until policy has been decided on this point, and provision made to meet these two fundamental problems.
In general terms, I agree that there should be further encouragement for the production of quality beef, and in this connection my hon. and gallant Friend may have seen the Ministry of Food Press Notice published last week. If it is possible, we will go further than that.
The seasonal price scales are worked out in discussion with the N.F.Us. of 1086 England, Scotland and Northern Ireland after each price review, and we will see if it is possible to make a greater differentiation for quality. The present price scale is intentionally weighted, to give some incentive to yard fattening in recognition of the considerably heavier costs involved. Some yard fattening will be done in any event. I agree there is very little profit, if any, in it, but the main benefit is the dung which helps to restore and build-up the fertility of the farm. On a number of farms, such feeding-stuffs as sugar-beet pulp, which would not leave the farms, can be, and is, used for fattening cattle. I believe it is possible that some additional fattening could be done by the greater use of the conservation of grass by making silage and dried grass. It is used to some extent now. If it can be used to a greater extent, my hon. and gallant Friend and I would be completely together. The surplus grass would then be employed for fattening in the slack period. One cannot fatten all animals with silage and dried grass, but even those which are not completely fattened would be fairly near it by the time they were turned out. It would be only a matter of a couple of months before the fattening was finished. They would come in the trough period of production and would help out in the short period of meat supply.
I can assure my hon. and gallant Friend that my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture and I are deeply concerned about the whole problem of getting greater meat production and, indeed, increasing, if we can, all farm production. At present we are considering in the Department the targets of production in all fields, and I can give my hon. and gallant Friend the assurance that the points he has raised will be given very careful consideration in this review. I thank him for raising the matter.