The beef trade remains under sustained pressure from factories with further pressure being heaped on finishers by factories this week. Factories are quoting €7.20/kg for bullocks for this week in a few locations.

Some processors are holding onto last week’s quotes for cattle killed early this week bit have signalled a move to €7.20/kg base price by the end of the week. Heifers are a similar story with quotes back 10 cent/kg on last week. Again, there are a few agents standing on at last week’s prices with €7.40/kg going in a few locations for cattle.

Flat prices of €7.50-€7.60/kg are on the table for in spec Aberdeen Angus bullocks and heifers but flat prices are becoming increasingly hard to come by with most factories now insisting that cattle are priced on the grid. Breed bonuses are also under some pressure with some factories dropping their Aberdeen Angus bonus to 20 cent/kg in the last number of weeks.

Cows

R grading cows are generally trading at €7.00/kg to €7.10/kg, while O grading cows are coming in around €6.60/kg to €6.70/kg.

There is a big range in quotes for P grading cows, with those with numbers able to bargain more and up to €6.40/kg to €6.50/kg being paid where cows are well finished.

Bulls

Bulls have also seen a drop, but €7.50/kg is still available at the top end for U grading bulls, working back to €7.30/kg to €7.35/kg for O grading bulls. Higher prices are also being paid to farmers who are contract feeding bigger numbers of bulls and larger feeders without a contract have also been able to hammer out better deals.

Under-16-month bulls are working off a €7.20/kg base, with a little more going where there are numbers involved.

While bull numbers have dropped a lot in recent years, there does seem to be more bulls around than usual at the moment with some finishers opting to leave male animals entire and push on with a shed finish in the next few weeks.