Call for greater transparency on medicine costs
07/03/05

The beef farmer's search for cost reductions must extend to drug price cuts and significant discounts on processed arable sector waste like sugar beet pulp and distillery bi-products.

So says the National Beef Association's Scottish chairman, Patrick Lambert, who thinks farmer reaction to decoupling must include fundamental questioning of vet and med charges and the maintenance of inflated prices in the bi-products market.

"There is too much variability in the price of routine management drugs because some vets undercharge for their visit and professional advice and then inflate the price of the medicine while others bill realistically for the visit but want less for the drugs," explained Mr Lambert.

"The NBA would like to see greater transparency on veterinary costs with more practices putting less emphasis on the retro bonus they get back from drug manufacturers for large volume, high priced, sales and charging more for veterinary attendance and preventative advice instead."

"Some larger businesses can have a vet bill of £10,000 but perhaps only £1,000 of this is down to professional fees because the farmer has forked out so heavily on vaccines, wormers and antibiotics."

"Most routine animal medicines can easily take a 25 per cent price drop and still be in line with prices in the rest of Europe because most drugs are priced at a level pharmaceutical companies think their customers can stand."

"And if the vet says he will have to raise the visiting fee they should to accept this because it means he is likely to pay more attention to cost reduction through disease prevention than rely on the sale of an unnecessarily large volume of high priced medicine sales which are the result of a series of avoidable disease fighting exercises."

Mr Lambert would also like farmers to look at all alternatives, particularly home grown, before they buy in over-expensive straights or blends.

"They should wise up, and either grow their own, join a buying group or use a nutritionist who can properly cost out the value of alternative products," he said.

"Too many farmers buy straights and blends from an established merchant or supplier because they are convenient but do not take a proper look at alternatives that can do a similar job at a lot less cost."

"We farmers sell our wheat ex-farm at £70 a tonne and malting barley at £75 and then buy back the waste residue like pot ale syrup, dark grains, brewers grains or molasses at £120 a tonne or more."

"Now that we are into decoupling and cost cutting is essential we must question why we are supporting this additional layer of expense and perpetuating a supply chain that must be shortened as well as sharpened up."