With the numbers of steers and heifers running slightly behind last year for the first five months of the year, it is no surprise that this is the area where factories are keenest to buy. Young bull numbers are running well ahead as are cows and this is where factories have cut prices over recent days for cows to kill this week.

As for prices, it is a case of stand on in most places with €4.10/kg now the standard base price in most places, and very few factories are trying to buy at less. Getting above this is proving to be quite a challenge and it is only the strongest negotiators with the perfect lot of cattle that are in a position to squeeze more out of the factories.

Heifers are now working of a base of €4.20/kg in most places and again factories are trying very hard to not go much beyond this. However, where there is a load of specification perfect cattle, they do not want to miss them and in these circumstances strong sellers will get a bit more and are probably easier to negotiate than steers.

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Young bulls

Despite young bull numbers being up 24,000 on last year up to the end of May, trade remains solid with €4.00/kg the lower end quote but €4.05/kg is being freely quoted by other factories for young bulls under 16 months. There isn’t a great deal of negotiating room after that, but with the overall kill coming in at 28,500 the previous week and similar expected for last week, there still is plenty of demand. Bulls over sixteen months are generally being bought at a fixed price for U’s and R’s, 3’s in fat, at €4.10/kg and again factories aren’t usually as hungry for these as steers and heifers which makes the farmers job of getting a bit more harder.

Cows

Cows have been the star performer this spring but hit the wall last week with big drops in quotes for this week. What is more, and surprising many factory agents, is that cows are coming forward early and in many cases could feed for another few weeks. In terms of numbers, €3.20 seems the going rate of quotes with €3.25/kg for O3’s being got by good suppliers or hard sellers. Getting beyond that is very much the exception. Top quality U and R grade suckler breeds are making €3.60/kg and 3.50/kg respectively while at the other end of the quality scale €3.00/kg to €3.10/kg seems to be the range for plainer Friesian P grades.

NI

In Northern Ireland, quotes are in the £3.18/kg (€4.22/kg) to £3.22/kg (€4.28/kg) with a preference of heifers typically being quoted 2p/kg more than steers. However in recent weeks in NI factory quotes are only part of the story with many people reporting much higher prices being received. It is well worth NI farmers negotiating hard.