THE fog surrounding the deadweight pricing system must be blown away.

A transparent price structure must be introduced so farmers can see which companies are paying the best prices.

Robert Forster, chief executive of the National Beef Association, made the demand at last Friday's national Beef 2002 event at Wooler auction mart in Northumberland.

He said the pricing system was meaningless and urged producers to insist their abattoir printed on the kill sheets the dressing specification it used.

The price could only make sense if the farmer knew how much had been trimmed off the carcase before weighing.

Mr Forster said the dairy sector now had a web site which listed all the prices paid by milk companies, in spite of opposition from the companies.

"Compared to that the beef industry is in the stone age," he said, "Many principal abattoirs are determined to protect their prices like the Crown Jewels and little or no information is coming to us."

Mr Forster said the "fog" the sector operated in became apparent to beef farmers who had previously traded at auction marts but, because of foot-and-mouth restrictions, had suddenly had to use what he described as "the deadweight selling minefield".

They discovered, to their bewilderment, that the average prices reported were based on the back-dated average weekly payments of a handful of major abattoirs in Britain and Ireland.

Almost all those were exclusively dedicated to supplying supermarkets. The prices did not take into account which style of animal the abattoir preferred or which the customer wanted.

"In Britain only 23 out of 380 fully operational abattoirs are compelled to report their prices," said Mr Forster. "These prices are pooled to supply the unrepresentative prices you see quoted each week, but with no individual specification.

"It is no good you getting a price if you do not know the dressing spec; it is immensely confusing and that is why many producers have no idea of what they are getting paid for."

Of the four official dressing specifications, the Meat and Livestock commission's was the lightest trim while the new European spec was the most severe. There was a huge difference between the two.

The situation was even more confused because the abattoirs not required to report their prices could cut to any specification they like.

"Imagine what difference there could be between the MLC standard, the mildest official spec, and a private trim where the slaughterman takes off as much as he likes before the carcase is weighed," Mr Forster said.

The NBA was advising all farmers who sold deadweight to insist that the dressing spec used on their carcases was listed on the kill sheets.

Mr Forster said all British farmers' organisations agreed with the NBA that abattoirs should use the same, and preferably the MLC, dressing spec. It would standardise prices but, he said, the abattoir sector would not voluntarily agree - it would depend on Defra officials and Europe imposing it.

"We would like abattoirs to publish their standard R4L prices under their own name and preferably a week in advance," said Mr Forster, "It would be nice wouldn't it ... and pigs might fly!"

"The abattoir resistance to this is mighty; some say their prices are their own business. Are they afraid more information will generate more competition?"

Share prices were reported daily, so were interest rates, grain prices and potato prices."Why not beef prices?" Mr Forster asked.

"From the abattoir reaction you would think we were asking for something we are wrong to ask for, but all the NBA wants is more price transparency to help farmers see which outlets really do pay the best price per head.