It’s been a small victory for farmers this week in the constant battle for better beef prices.

Many factories were trying to buy cattle at €5.15/kg last week, with talk of further price drops on the horizon.

Farmers dug in and very few cattle were purchased at the lower quotes.

A standoff ensued in some cases and factories had no choice but to increase quotes again this week back to where they were before the early March wobble. There have even been some improvements to where cattle were being quoted two weeks ago.

Bullocks in the main are working off €5.20/kg, with heifers working off €5.25/kg. There is even a few €5.30/kg quotes going for heifers towards the end of this week.

Donegal is back up to where it was two weeks ago as well, with €5.30/kg being paid for bullocks killing out between 300kg and 400kg, while heifers are being paid out at €5.35/kg for heifers killing out between 300kg and 400kg.

Young bulls

The top price in the young bull market is still coming in at €5.40/kg to €5.50/kg for U grading bulls, with €5.30/kg to €5.40/kg on the table for well-fleshed R grading bulls.

P and O grading bulls are being bought at €5.00/kg to €5.10/kg and €5.10/kg to €5.20/kg.

Under-16-month bulls are being bought at €5.20/kg to €5.25/kg base price on the grid.

Cows

Cows never really flinched during last week’s state of flux, with cows still in good demand.

P+3 cows are working off €4.60/kg, with O grading cows coming in at €4.70/kg to €4.80/kg.

R grading cows are generally being quoted at €4.90/kg to €5.00/kg, with U grading cows now moving at €5.10/kg to €5.20/kg.

Specialist wholesalers are still very active in marts for heavy well-fleshed cows, paying over €3/kg for some cows in the last seven days.

Beef kill

Last week’s kill continued to fall, coming in at 33,530, head a drop of 614 on the previous week.

Most categories of stock were down, with just bullocks and aged bulls seeing a slight increase.

Calf slaughterings hit 4,546 head last week. So far in 2023, there has been 13,784 calves slaughtered, up almost 1,000 on the 2022 figure.

The latest animal identification and movement data published by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine shows there was over 45,000 fewer beef cattle aged 0 to 42 months on farms on 1 January 2023, compared with 1 January 2022.

This will help beef prices in the short term, with supplies expected to get very tight in the next few months.

We’ve already started to see this contraction happen and further price increases are expected in the next few weeks and months due to supply and demand issues.

It’s clear in marts that factories have issued contracts to their big feeders, with prices being paid way in excess of what ordinary farmers could pay for store animals at current beef prices.

Factories have pursued a two-tier pricing market and smaller finishers will somehow have to deal with it.

Selling forward stores in the marts could be a better option for some farmers that takes out the expensive final finishing period.

NI comment

The beef trade in Northern Ireland remains extremely positive, with more factories raising quotes to 466p/kg (€5.52/kg inc VAT) on U3 animals this week.

However, 480p/kg (€5.68/kg) is a more realistic base, with deals of 482p and 484p/kg (€5.70 to €5.73/kg) widely available on steers and heifers as supplies remain tight.

Cull cows are a flying trade and prices are edging upwards, with 410p/kg (€4.86/kg) widely reported on R grade animals.