"Brian Sandle" wrote in message
...
In sci.agriculture Jim Webster wrote:

"Brian Sandle" wrote in message
...

You have a related problem - another unnatural agricultural procedure
that
was warned about: feeding meat to cattle, causing spread of BSE.

and that affects wheat prices exactly how?

BSE did impinge on beef prices

And there were fewer cattle to feed,

no, because beef animals are predominantly a by-product of the dairy
industry. The number of beef cattle has been falling very slowly over the
years as the number of dairy and beef cows has slowly fallen. The biggest
cause in the fall in beef numbers is milk quota which, when combined with
steadily increasing dairy genetic merit and milk yields has meant there are
less milk cows producing the same about of milk

and less money to buy grain
feed?

Ruminants are not big users of wheat, pigs and poultry and the largest users

What proportion of UK wheat is bought buy farmers? Then the
available storage silos would be getting full sooner, so the wheat
would have to go to market without waiting for a better price.

Not a problem, the beef industry is not a major user of wheat

Jim Webster