§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each dairy and livestock product the proportion of the cost or ex-farm selling price accounted for by feedstuffs, including grazing.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThese proportions vary over time and according to methods of production. Moreover, milk and calves, sheepmeat and wool are joint products which means that costs cannot be allocated strictly among these products or expressed as proportions of specific selling prices. Subject to these uncertainties and in broad terms, total feedingstuffs and grazing costs in recent years have represented about a half of the value of output in dairying and lowland sheep production and rather more than half in beef production. In the production of pigs, eggs and broiler chickens, feed costs have amounted generally to about two-thirds of output values.