The last 12 months will go down as one of the better ones from a beef finishers’ point of view.

The beef trade took off on a rollercoaster in the middle of January 2025, improving all the time until it peaked out at just over €8/kg at the beginning of April. Cattle purchased in spring, while deemed expensive at the time, left a good margin for grass finishers.

Winter finishers who purchased their stores in the back end of 2024 were rewarded for the efforts in the spring of 2025 for the first time in a long number of years.

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Many of these finishers will point to the replacement costs of stock, which have increased by up to €1,000/head in some cases, eroding any big gains for the finisher and instead returning the increased margin to the store seller or suckler farmer.

Slaughter numbers took a big dive over the last 12 months, with the national kill finishing up almost 210,000 head behind the same 51-week period in 2024.

It was a remarkable reduction, with high live exports in 2023 and 2024 being one of the main drivers of the drop, along with a consistent decline in suckler cow numbers in the last few years.

All stock categories saw reductions in numbers in 2025. The young bull category saw one of the smallest decreases, with 2,441 fewer young bulls killed in 2025 compared with the same period in 2024.

The number of older bulls that were slaughtered also reduced in 2025, with 4,970 fewer head killed.

Moving on to the bullock kill, it saw a huge reduction in 2025, with 64,709 fewer head killed in 2025, equating to almost 1,300 head less a week during the last 12 months.

The cow kill saw one of the largest reductions in the last number of decades, with 93,175 fewer cows killed in 2025.

The 2024 cow kill was elevated with a huge number of suckler cows culled in 2024. Dairy cow disposals were also high in 2024 on the back of increased nitrates pressure on dairy farms in 2024.

Disappointing quotes

End-of-year quotes continue to disappoint, with factories adopting a take-it-or-leave-it approach when it comes to buying.

Base quotes for bullocks are working off €7.10/kg, with heifers working off a base price of €7.20/kg.

There continues to be speculation around the Aberdeen Angus bonus being paid for in-spec cattle, with some agents pointing to further reductions in bonus rates in 2026.

Cow quotes continue to be under pressure, with some agents quoting lower this week. P+3 cows are coming in at €6.40/kg to €6.50/kg.

Good O grades with flesh are still making €6.50/kg to €6.70/kg, with quality R grading cows coming in at €6.70/kg to €6.80/kg and a little above it in some locations.

Well-fleshed U grading cows are still coming in at €7.00/kg in some factories this week.

The mart is still the place if you have small numbers of cows to sell, with top-quality cows still making close to €4/kg in some marts this week.

The trade in young bulls also eased. The going rate being offered for R grading bulls is in the region of €7.30/kg to €7.40/kg, with U grading bulls touching €7.30/kg, while P and O grading bulls are coming in at €7.10/kg to €7.20/kg.

Despite the negative sentiment at the end of 2025, the outlook for the 2026 trade remains positive, with tight supply expected to underpin prices for the first half of 2026.

Bord Bia has already forecast the 2026 kill to be back by 45,000 to 55,000 head, which means any recovery in pre-2025 numbers is still a long way away.