Factories continue to pay €3.75/kg and higher for heifers, with plants further north being forced to the higher end of the prices to get cattle.

While €3.80/kg is rare, it has been paid to secure cattle where numbers are involved.

Angus and Hereford cattle remain in firm demand due to the strong retail trade, with a bonus of 20c/kg being paid on in-spec cattle.

Flat deals are also being negotiated for as high as €4.05/kg for suitable animals.

Bullocks have moved to €3.70/kg across the country and €3.75/kg where a load is being sent with heifers on board.

Cow throughput

With prime cattle numbers falling, factories have turned to cows to boost throughput and the cow trade has also started off this week very strong.

Marts are reporting very strong activity for cows over the weekend from northern customers, with the €2/kg barrier being broken for good-quality R and U grade cows in the ring.

Quotes for good R grading cows are at €3.20/kg to €3.30/kg, with O grades coming in at €2.90/kg to €3.00/kg and P grades at €2.80/kg to €2.90/kg.

With such high activity in marts for cows, farmers should weigh up the options of selling store cows now or finishing in January or February.

Bull trade

The bull trade has also steadied. Under-16-month bulls are trading off €3.60/kg to €3.65/kg on the grid. Older R grading bulls are at €3.60/kg to €3.70/kg, with U grades coming in on average 10c/kg higher at €3.70/kg to €3.80/kg.

The kill for the week ending 20 November dropped to 36,837 head, a drop of almost 2,500 on the week before, with the majority of the fall coming in the prime cattle categories.

There were 1,145 fewer bullocks killed last week and 1,473 fewer heifers killed last week.

With prices rising, there is always a temptation to hold on to cattle, but the advice is to kill cattle when they are fit.

The European Commission has predicted that beef production across the EU will fall by 2%, with France, Germany and Ireland all reporting a reduced national herd as part of the June livestock survey.

EU beef exports, while up 1% in 2020, are predicted to decline by 4% in 2021 due to tighter domestic supplies.

EU beef imports declined by 22% in the first half of 2020. The gradual reopening of food service and restaurant outlets will likely increase beef imports in the second half of 2020, but, overall, will still be likely to be down 10% compared with 2019 levels.

Beef imports into the EU are expected to stabilise in 2021.

EU beef consumption is also predicted to decline by 2.1% in 2020, to 10.4kg per capita. A further 1.2% decline is forecast for consumption of beef in 2021.