The beef trade continues to soar this week as beef quotes to secure sufficient supplies of finished cattle are moving up on a daily basis.

Foyle Meats of Donegal was first out of the traps on Monday morning, lifting their base quotes by 20c/kg. Factories are extremely anxious for cattle and are paying from €5.15-5.30/kg base price for heifers, with bullocks coming in at €5.10-€5.15/kg.

These quotes pale into insignificance compared to what agents are paying for finished cattle in marts, with bullocks hitting the equivalent of €5.90/kg deadweight in a number of marts this week.

All the market signals would suggest that beef prices could hit €6/kg by the end of May.

With another strong kill of over 35,000 this week, there is now a real worry in procurement offices about supplies for June and July, with larger finishers now turning to lighter cattle for a mid-summer indoor finish.

Last week’s kill is running almost 6,000 animals ahead of the same week in 2021.

The Irish cattle kill is currently running 12% (71,000) ahead of the same period in 2021. Across Europe the beef trade continues to perform very strongly with U3 young bulls in the Netherlands hitting €5.90/kg excl VAT this week up from €3.70/kg this week last year.

The Irish composite beef price continues to lag behind the EU composite price by 20 c/kg