Quotes for prime cattle continue to trade around €3.60/kg for bullocks and €3.65/kg for heifers.

I know of a few farmers who have been able to squeeze €3.70/kg for heifers where numbers of good-quality animals were involved.

There's been a marked difference in how factories are dealing with overweight cattle in the last few weeks, with a lot of leeway being given on heavy cattle.

Bulls are a similar 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 €3.55/kg to €3.60/kg, with U grades coming in on average 10c/kg higher at €3.65/kg to €3.70/kg.

Lower-grading bulls are generally trading at €3.40/kg to €3.50/kg.

Cow trade

The cow trade is still going well, with P+3 cows trading at €2.95/kg to €3.10/kg.

O grading cows are generally moving at €3.10/kg to €3.15/kg, with good R and U grading cows trading for as high as €3.30/kg to €3.40/kg in some plants, depending on numbers and quality.

In a normal year, weather breaking on the first week of October would mean extra numbers on hand for killing, but the shortage in numbers of finished cattle will likely see no surge worth talking about.

A lot of forward cattle in the west have been housed at this stage, which will mean a November and December kill for many.

Marts avenue

I have said it a few times over the last six weeks - finished cattle or cattle near finish are a lot better trade in marts. This is similar across all categories of stock from dry cows to heifers.

The big question on everybody’s lips is how another lockdown would affect factories at a processing level and consumers at a purchasing level.

Processors seem to have been able to get things under control at factory level. There were a number of outbreaks, but most factories were able to stay trading, with limited closures over the last six months.

Food production is deemed an essential service, so it is likely the same would happen if further restrictions were to be brought in.

On the consumer side, the closure of food service establishments would be a blow to beef sales. However, we saw retail sales rocket during the last lockdown.

It’s likely that any further restrictions won’t be as severe as the March 2020 lockdown. At the moment, Brexit is a bigger threat to the industry.