Massive price ranges

Never have I seen such disparities in the factory price of prime cattle. Depending on the home that can be found for them, mainstream prime animals are ranging from 74/76 p a lb for over 30 month to 84/86p a lb for under 30 month prime cattle. At the fringes for niche cattle prices range from;

• a base 64 p a lb for an over 30 month Holstein heifer that failed to go in calf.
• 87 p a lb for prime steers/heifers under 30 months to go North.
• 88 p a lb flat for Hereford Prime bullocks.
• 91 p a lb for the top animals killed in the Donegal Direct (DD) club. (More on this next week.)
• 92 p a lb for the R grade bullocks for the certified Angus scheme with 2 p more for heifers. (Teagasc are now on a study tour of the Angus market in Canada to see if there are lessons for Ireland.)
• £1 a lb for under 12 month bulls and heifers for Italy from Dawn and AIBP (Although this trade is being undercut by Irish exporters).
• £1.30 a lb for organic beef at Ashgrove meats in Limerick; even £1.40 a lb if the organic cattle grade U.
• All year there has been an expectation of a take off in demand and price for beef in the UK. This should now happen, partly because the removal of the export ban will reduce the competition from cheap lamb.

In NI beef quotes are rising steadily by about 2p a kg a week to 166p/kg (£1lb Irish) for U grade. Down south a scarcity of under 30 month stock is showing and farmers getting less than 85 p a lb are deemed soft sellers. Interestingly the boss of Slaney Meats predicted prices in the low 90's p/lb for under 30 month in 2 months.

Over 30 months still poor

In contrast depression abounds with farmers trying to sell over 30 month stock. There is little sign of supplies tightening yet and most plants are paying 78/76/74 p/lb for U/R/O grade over 30 mths. One small chink of hope is that discounts against the better over 30 month heifers have stopped.

Then again, earlier in the year, when under 30 month stock rose in price, it lifted all cattle.

Plants that are killing mixed ages of cattle are forced to group strange stock together. This is adding stress all round and leading to big numbers of dark cutting carcases.

The beef plants are warming slightly on a resumption of the Egyptian trade now that the talk is of reverting to the previous flexible method of examining teeth to establish age. A possible late January start up is mentioned.

Exports of replacements

The EU vet move that lifted the UK lamb ban has also raised the possibility of shipping store cattle and dairy/suckler replacements from Ireland (North and South) to Scotland.

If they want dairy replacements from Ireland they will be pricey. We need them all to keep restocking depopulated herds at home. Another 7 herds went last week with BSE plus a similar number with TB/Brucellosis.

Interestingly Canada is not an option for Irish replacements any longer as we have banned stock from there on the grounds that they are still feeding fishmeal!

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