butcher
Lucy Crawshaw of Taylor’s Farm Shop in Lathom, Lancashire has become Britain’s Best Young Butcher, winning the title of Premier Young Butcher 2015.
She beat six other butcher apprentices at the finals of the Premier Young Butcher Competition (PYBC) organised by the National Federation of Meat & Food Traders (NFMFT).The five-hour, six-category competition saw seven of the country’s leading apprentices demonstrate their skills in seam butchery and creating a display for Ready to Eat, Stuffed Roast, Barbecue and Kitchen Ready products.The competitors were assessed for their craft skill, innovation and working practices by industry experts Danny Upson of Dalziel, AHDB Pork product manager, CEO of the Institute of Meat and international butchery judge Keith Fisher and national team coach, industry consultant and RAPS (UK) representative Viv Harvey. Twenty-three-year-old Lucy, a level three Meat Ipswich apprentice who has 13 A* to B grade GCSEs, 4 AS levels and a triple distinction in Countryside Land Management, won four of the six categories for her Ready to Eat, Stuffed Roast, Seam butchery and Barbecue products as well as being very commended for Display.NFMFT president Jim Sperring said:
“It’s good to see young apprentices with the sort of skills demonstrated [in this competition]. Full marks to them all, they’re a credit to the trade, I’m sure they all have great futures ahead of them.”
Cattle prices are coming under pressure from slow consumer demand and ample supply, Eblex has warned.
This combination, experienced by both domestic and imported beef, continues to drive some restraint among processors, the red meat levy board reported, resulting in “downward pressures” on the prime cattle market.
In the week ending 18 April prices for all classes of cattle fell – all prime deadweight cattle prices were 3p down on the previous week.
Similar pressures have been felt in the Scottish beef cattle trade, where animals have been kept on farms instead of being sent for slaughter. Eblex said this was giving rise to fears the beef market could return to the crisis point it found itself in last year when the beef price crashed.
However, Debbie Butcher, senior market analyst at Eblex, said this could change as the season moves into its “transitional period”.
“This development has been a feature of the market for a couple of months or so and reflects the continued imbalance in supply and demand. However, with the expectations that cattle supplies are set to tighten, (throughputs in March and April so far suggest this may have already started) the balance in the trade could move into a position that is less out of kilter, in particular as the season moves towards its transitional period between yarded and grass-fed supplies,” Butcher commented.
Eblex reported that lower cattle numbers in Ireland, resulting in fewer imports, could help support the market in the medium term.
“However, with the current fine weather unlikely to stimulate demand for roasting cuts, it is likely that caution among processors could persist in the short term, which, coupled with the euro exchange rate and its impact on the competitiveness of UK product on the continent, continues to offer some downside risk to the trade,” Butcher concluded.