Quotes for prime cattle are holding this week, with €3.60/kg available for in-spec steers and €3.65/kg available for heifers.

Some processors have been able to buy heifers at €3.60/kg, but €3.65/kg is generally available after negotiation.

The fact that prime cattle are holding is reflective of a strong retail demand for prime beef.

This strong demand will underpin prices in the runup to Christmas, especially as numbers of prime cattle get tighter in the coming weeks.

There’s a distinct sense on the ground that processors are managing numbers to avoid any shortages in the weeks ahead.

The strong retail demand has meant factories are actively sourcing Aberdeen Angus and Hereford stock, with bonuses of up to 15 c/kg available for suitable stock.

The bull trade is similar to last week’s trade, with R grading bulls ranging from €3.50/kg to €3.60/kg and U grading bulls at €3.65/kg to €3.70/kg. Under-16-month bulls are trading off €3.55/kg to €3.60/kg base price.

Cows have taken a hit in price this week, with quotes down 10c/kg to 20c/kg in some plants.

Procurement managers have been quick to draw attention to the situation across the water with the UK going into lockdown this week.

This will likely have an impact on the food service trade, although many establishments are better prepared now for takeaway services compared with the last lockdown in March this year.

There also appears to be more cows on the market this week, with some farmers keeping cows to meet BDGP deadlines now in a place to offload them.

It has resulted in quotes for R grading cows coming back to €3.05/kg to €3.15/kg, O grading cows in the €2.85/kg to €3.00/kg bracket and P grading cows back at €2.70/kg to €2.80/kg.

The cow kill has been strong for the last few weeks, with 7,640 cows killed in the week ending 30 October and this has tipped the power balance back to the factories.

Last week’s kill dropped by 4,008 cattle down to 33,178 head, reflecting the four-day kill on account of the bank holiday Monday.

Much of this drop came in the bullock category, with 2,750 fewer bullocks killed last week.

Bull throughput has remained stable at 2,000/head a week for the last number of weeks, down from 3,000 head/week this time last year.

Exports of live animals to NI remained low again last week. There were 318 cattle exported to NI in the last week of October, down from 864 in the last week of September.

Commenting on the beef trade, IFA livestock chair Brendan Golden said: “Factories need to reflect the strong supermarket trade and close the gap with UK prices. Our main export market in the UK is very strong and an R4L steer is currently making €4.45/kg including VAT in the UK market.”

NI comment

In Northern Ireland, prices for finished cattle remain firm on the back of growing demand within the UK retail sector.

Base quotes are slowly rising, with U-3 grading animals on 360p to 362p/kg (€4.21 to €4.24/kg inc VAT). Farmers offloading good numbers of in-spec steers and young bulls report price deals of 372p/kg (€4.36/kg) are on offer. Deals on heifers are closer to 376p/kg (€4.40/kg) for regular finishers. Processing demand for cull cows is easing with some plants reducing quotes, although a base of 275p/kg (€3.16/kg) is still on offer for R3 grading animals.