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Aberdeen Angus-sired animals dominated the prime cattle kill during the first half of 2022, accounting for 24% of steers, heifers and young bulls processed at local factories, a 2% increase on the same period last year.
From 1 January to 30 June 2020, there were 145,204 prime cattle processed in NI, an increase of 19,874 on the 125,330 prime animals processed during the first half of 2021.
Beef cattle born to a suckler cow accounted for 55% of the prime kill, unchanged from the previous year.
This means 45% of the prime cattle processed this year were born to a dairy dam, with 32% of these animals sired by a beef bull and the remaining 13% born to a dairy sire.
Almost 36,000 cattle processed from January to June were Angus-sired, with two-thirds of these animals born to a dairy dam.
Limousin was the next most common breed, accounting for 19% of the prime kill with 28,172 animals processed, 80% of which were born to a suckler dam.
Charolais was third with 26,349 animals processed, around 18% of the prime kill, 95% of which originated from the suckler herd.
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