Ebenezer Scrooge comes to mind rather than the man in the big red suit when you look around at Christmas decorations against the backdrop of the beef trade this week.

Like Ebenezer, factories are holding tight to the pennies and refusing to increase beef quotes, despite talk of increased demand from the UK over the last few days.

Numbers also remain tight, but quotes haven’t moved off last week’s base prices for bullocks of €7.40/kg.

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Heifers are working off 10c/kg more, with even €7.60/kg base price being paid to some for larger loads of heifers in the last few days.

At the other end of the scale, one processor in the south has tried to drop bullocks to €7.30/kg, but hasn’t been able to buy many cattle at the lower quote.

Agents are reported to be anxious for finished cattle, with buyers still very active for reduced numbers in marts.

Breed bonuses are under a little pressure, with some factories dropping their Angus bonus by 10c/kg to 20c/kg, but bonuses of 30c/kg are still on the table for in-spec Aberdeen Angus heifers. Hereford bonuses are also being paid out at 20c/kg.

Cows

Cows have steadied a little, with some reports of fewer cows coming to the market in the next few weeks.

P+3 cows are coming in at €6.50/kg to €6.70/kg. Good O grades with flesh are still making €6.80/kg to €6.90/kg, with quality R grading cows coming in at €6.90/kg to €7.00/kg and a little above it in some locations.

Well-fleshed U grading cows are still coming in at €7.10/kg in some factories this week. The mart is probably still the place to go if you have small numbers of cows.

The run-up to Christmas always sees demand drop a little for cows, as processors concentrate on prime beef.

Bulls

The trade in young bulls is also at a similar level to where it was this time last week.

The going rate being offered for R and U grades is in the region of €7.50/kg to €7.60/kg, while P and O grading bulls are coming in at €7.20/kg to €7.40/kg.

Under-16-month bulls are working off a base price of €7.25/kg to €7.35/kg this week before any grading or in-spec bonuses are applied.

Cattle kill

The weekly kill remains remarkably steady, with last week’s kill coming in just over 32,000 head.

The bull kill increased by 190 head, with both the heifer kill and cow kill reducing slightly over the last seven days.

The chat among agents is that the cow kill will reduce more from next week on as farmers look to reduce their tax exposure for 2025 and push cow slaughtering into 2026, when tax may not be as big an issue.

Last week’s kill was over 7,000 head behind the kill for the same week in 2024.

Factories are expected to remain on two- or three-day weeks for processing over the holiday period, with no huge change from the number of days they are operating on at the moment.

Further afield, the UK trade appears steady, with prices creeping upwards by 1p to 5p/kg over the past week, with the exception of cows which saw a 3p/kg reduction.

R4L bullocks came in at 671p/kg (€8.01/kg incl VAT). The Scottish price is on a par with the English price, which is unusual, as it is normally ahead.

Irish Farmers’ Association livestock chair Declan Hanrahan said: “There are some big differences between factories for quotes this week and farmers should shop around for better deals because they are out there.”

NI comment

Quotes in processing factories across Northern Ireland are back a touch, with in-spec cattle coming in at 655p/kg (€7.82 incl VAT), which is back about 4p to 5p/kg on the previous week.