Chinks of light are starting to appear in the beef trade, with more activity from factory agents this week looking for finished cattle.

This has resulted in a small rise in some quotes for heifers, with €3.70/kg being paid by a few processors to secure numbers.

Other processors have moved to €3.68/kg, while some factories further north have been able to hold quotes at €3.65/kg for heifers.

Steers remain at €3.60/kg in most plants. Factories are moving to fill retails orders in advance of what is anticipated to be a very busy Christmas market.

Bull trade

It’s a similar story in the bull trade this week, with under-16-month bulls trading off €3.50/kg to €3.60/kg on the grid.

Older R grading bulls are at €3.50/kg to €3.55/kg, with U grades coming in on average 10c/kg higher at €3.65/kg to €3.70/kg.

There still appears to be some scope around no penalties on heavy bulls, with a number of processors actively looking for heavy bulls to fill specific market requirements.

Lesser-grading dairy-cross bulls are back a little on last week’s quotes and generally trading at €3.35/kg to €3.45/kg.

Bull slaughtering continues to fall, with 61,996 fewer bulls slaughtered this year up to the week ending 7 November compared with the same period last year.

There were 181,133 young bulls killed up to this point last year, compared with 119,137 for the same period in 2020.

Cow trade

The cow trade has stabilised after a few tough weeks of trading. Quotes for R grading cows are at €3.00/kg to €3.10/kg, O grading cows are in the €2.75/kg to €2.85/kg bracket and P grading cows are back at €2.60/kg to €2.70/kg.

There appears to be some resistance on the ground to sell R grade cows below €3.10/kg, with farmers willing to hold on and take their chances in the runup to Christmas.

Live exports

Live exports for direct slaughter to NI have bounced back up again. Five-hundred-and-forty-five cattle were exported for direct slaughter to NI for the week ending 7 November 2020, up from 318 head the week before.

Across the water, the beef trade continues to strengthen. In the week ending 7 November, the GB overall prime deadweight cattle price averaged 369.2p/kg (€4.36 incl VAT), a rise of nearly 2p/kg on the week.

The price is now over 45p/kg (53c/kg incl VAT) above last year’s price for the same week and over 21p/kg (25c/kg incl VAT) above the five-year average.

Estimated prime throughput at British abattoirs totalled 32,600 head for that week, up 2% on the week before.

Despite the weekly rise, AHDB figures show that prime throughput continues to run below that of last year, with the latest week’s figures back over 7% year on year.