FARMERS are always moaning about not getting their fair share of the retail price of beef and lamb and are forever accusing meat processors and butchers of profiteering at their expense.

Depending on the system, the length of time between a beef cow conceiving and her calf growing out to slaughter weight is between 24 and 27 months. Compare that with the abattoir that may hang the carcase for between one and four weeks before selling it on to the butcher, who will then sell the meat for cash within a week or so.

Although the timescales are shorter, it's much the same with lambs that have a production cycle from conception to slaughter of between nine months and a year or more.

Farmers are paid an agreed price per kilogram by the abattoir based on the carcase weight of the slaughtered animal, and the prices paid at markets for live animals are based on those prices. The problem is that the price of beef or lamb "on the hook" bears no relation to that charged by the butcher, a situation that's down to the amount of "saleable" meat a carcase yields.

The value of a carcase is based on a lot of things. For instance, while cattle hides or sheepskins are not weighed with the carcase, their value is taken into account by the abattoir when quoting a price to the farmer for his prime stock.

Similarly the pluck (lungs, heart and liver) are also removed from the carcase before weighing, but their value is also taken into account, as is the value of the stomach and intestines destined for the likes of tripe.

Although cattle and sheep have their heads removed from the carcase before it is weighed, they also have a value (ox-tongue and cheek).

All these different constituents that are not part of the weighed-carcase are referred to as the fifth-quarter and farmers are well aware that they are an important income stream for abattoirs.

Little wonder farmers are quick to accuse butchers of profiteering when they see the price they are charging for roast beef, steak, lamb chops or the legs of lamb. How can retailers charge over £17 per kilogram for some lamb cuts when farmers at the same time are only receiving about £4 per kilogram for their lamb carcases?

Things are not always what they seem. For instance, when a lamb carcase is butchered, around 40 to 45 per cent of it yields prime cuts, 15 per cent is trim and the remainder -- bones and waste - is in the region of 40 per cent.

Put simply, a lamb that weighed 40kg when it was alive on the farm will probably yield a carcase weighing about 18kg in the abattoir. That will eventually yield between 7.5 and 8kg of prime cuts for the butcher to sell.

To maximise his profit the butcher has to sell the whole carcase by adding value and being inventive with off-cuts wherever possible.

Kidney channel fat is a good example. The value of this on its own is less than £1 per kg, but speciality black puddings that retail for around £8 per kg include about one third of this kind of fat. Other "trim" meat is sold in pies, sausage rolls, diced meats, kebabs or marinated to make tasty meat ready for customers to cook. There's a lot going on in the backroom of a butcher's shop!

While farmers regularly complain that they aren't paid enough for their lambs, butchers for their part complain about lamb carcasses being too fat and having too much waste.

One solution would be to breed sheep that produced leaner carcases with a higher percentage of high-value cuts. Sadly, that's not so easily achieved.

Scotland' sheep industry is a stratified one; by that we mean that hardy breeds of sheep graze our highest hills, and surplus breeding females are sold to farmers in the uplands for crossing.

The resultant crossbred females are often more prolific and are sold on to low-ground farms to be crossed with meaty terminal sires. It's a system unique to the UK that exploits hybrid vigour, but at the top of the supply chain of breeding sheep are the pure-bred hill flocks.

Unfortunately those hill sheep have to survive some of the harshest winters and springs in Europe. Survival traits like mothering ability are not compatible with butchers' requirements for big, lean, meaty carcases so breeding that type of lamb is confined to specialist, low-ground flocks.