Last week’s cow kill increased marginally by 225 head to 6,853, but is running behind previous weeks’ levels and below normal for the time of year.

The lower kill is helping underpin prices, with demand holding strong in direct factory and mart sales.

Fleshed P+ grading cows are trading in the main from €3.25/kg to €3.35/kg, while O grades are selling mainly from €3.35/kg to €3.45/kg.

Wide variation remains between what plants are paying, as can be seen in the Department price table, where plants most active in the cow trade are paying 5c/kg to 10c/kg higher.

The trade is in contrast with steers and heifers, with prices still facing factory pressure. The slow start to this week, with cattle processed on Tuesday purchased last week, helped maintain stronger prices for longer.

This saw base prices range in general from €3.95/kg for steers to €4.05/kg for heifers, with 5c/kg more paid at the higher end of the market to secure sales.

Base quotes for this week are generally being offered at €3.90/kg for steers and €4.00/kg for heifers, with supplies strongest in the east and southeast.

There are farmers still securing a base of €4.05/kg for heifers, while a base of €3.95/kg has been harder to hold. There are also reports of 5c/kg higher paid to regular sellers who moved cattle at short notice to satisfy demand.

Last week’s steer kill increasing by 431 head saw steer throughput break through the 15,000 mark, reaching 15,258.

Heifer throughput also marginally increased by 142 head to 7,862, with the overall weekly kill increasing 536 head to 32,774. Bulls were the only category recording a reduction, with the kill now at a seasonal low level of 2,211.

The majority of bulls are being produced by specialist finishers, but those trading smaller numbers are, in general, being paid €3.90/kg to €3.95/kg for R grades and €4.00/kg to €4.05/kg for U grades.

Bulls less than 16 months and selling on the QPS grid are being offered a base quote of €3.90/kg to €3.95/kg, with the higher quotes, in cases, commanding a tighter weight limit of 400kg to 420kg.

Northern trade

The northern trade is holding solid, with the U-3 entry base quote ranging from £3.60/kg to £3.64/kg. The exchange rate has fluctuated from 89.5p to 90.5p in recent days and at Wednesday afternoon’s rate of 90.3p to the euro, this equates to €4.20/kg to €4.25/kg including VAT at 5.4%.

Regular sellers continue to negotiate above base quotes, as reflected in last week’s prices as reported by the Livestock Meat Commission (LMC) of £3.72/kg (€4.34/kg) for U-3= steers and £3.78/kg (€4.41/kg) for U-3= heifers.

O grading cows range from £2.80/kg to £3.00/kg (€3.27/kg to €3.50/kg), with R grades from £2.95/kg to £3.10/kg (€3.44/kg to €3.62/kg) at the top of the market.

The number of cattle exported to the North for direct slaughter was recorded at 319 head last week, with 59 going in the opposite direction.

Exports north for the year to date total 7,332, compared with 8,110, while imports of cattle from Northern Ireland have nearly halved, falling from 8,638 head in 2016 to 4,319.

British prices are steady, with R4L steers and heifers averaging around £3.83/kg (€4.47/kg) and £3.81/kg (€4.45/kg) respectively. Prices continue to run about 30p to 35p ahead of last year.

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