The beef trade is starting the week unchanged with the bank holiday giving factories even more leeway to source cattle for this week's kill. There is no major signs of cattle supplies tightening with factories still managing throughput in the region of 35,000 head of steers, heifers, cows and bulls.

As such, there is still a time lag in most plants from booking to slaughter of up to a week for steers and heifers, with bulls in many cases continuing to face longer delays. Prices are also unchanged with steers trading on a base of €3.75/kg and heifers on a base of €3.85/kg.

While there is no variation in steer and heifer prices between plants, there is significant variation in prices paid for bulls and cows. U-grading bulls are trading at the top of the market from €3.60/kg to €3.70/kg with some plants quoting back to €3.50/kg.

These prices are for bulls ticking the boxes on carcase weight and fat score with bulls deemed overweight at a typical carcase weight of 430kg to 440kg-plus facing cuts of 10c/kg to 20c/kg. The level of penalties also depends on the producer-processor relationship and the number of bulls in a batch that are deemed overweight.

R grades are trading in general from €3.40/kg to €3.55/kg while there is an even wider differential in prices paid for O-grading bulls. Better quality O=/+ grading bulls are trading at the top of the market from €3.30/kg to €3.40/kg while bulls over 24 months of age are trading back to €3.00/kg to €3.10/kg.

Steady cow trade

A lower number of cows in the market is adding some bite to the trade. P+3 grading cows are trading from €2.65/kg to €2.80/kg while O-grading cows are trading from €2.80/kg to €2.95/kg. R-grading cows are trading in the main from €3.00/kg to €3.10/kg with top prices for heavy R grades rising to €3.15/kg to €3.20/kg. U-grading cows range from €3.20/kg to €3.35/kg.