Factory agents continue to be very active for finished cattle, with cows the order of the day at the moment.

Bullocks continue to work off a base price of €7.00/kg to €7.10/kg, with the higher end of quotes being reserved for regular customers and those with numbers.

Heifers are also unchanged this week, with a range of base quotes from €7.10/kg to €7.20/kg available.

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Breed bonuses are available on top of these base prices for in-spec cattle, with 20c/kg available at the moment for both Aberdeen Angus cattle and Hereford cattle in most processors.

Farmers are advised to bargain hard when it comes to selling cattle and taking a look at this week’s factory price leagues on pages 26-29, it may pay you to travel in some instances.

Cow trade

The cow trade is also steady, with R grading cows being priced at €6.80/kg to €6.90/kg.

U grading cows are still trading at €7/kg to €7.10/kg, while O grading cows are being bought for €6.60/kg to €6.70/kg.

P+3 cows are back a little further, with some factories trying to purchase P+3 cows at €6.20/kg to €6.30/kg.

Factory agents have been back paying some exceptional prices for well-fleshed heavy cows, with up to €4.60/kg liveweight being paid for some cows in marts this week.

Carcase balance is an issue for some factories at the moment and having a mix of product at different prices is becoming more and more important, which leaves some in search of cows.

Bulls

Bulls have probably held the best out of all categories of stock, with R grading bulls still coming in at €7.25/kg and U grading bulls at €7.40/kg.

Specialised bull finishers have been able to squeeze a little more out of some processors.

Under-16-month bulls are working off a €7/kg to €7.10/kg base price to go on the grid.

Factories are looking for volumes of beef at the moment and that’s why bulls are being sought after.

Last week’s kill came in at just under 500 head lower than the week before, with 30,481 cattle processed.

The heifer kill dropped by almost 1,000 head, with cows increasing by 800 in the week.

The bull kill remains strong at 3,472 head, up about 140 on the previous week. Numbers of finished cattle remain tight on the ground, with agents active in marts for stock.

UK prices

Across the water, quotes were back a little last week to the tune of 2p to 4p/kg. Prime cattle quotes are ranging from £6.35/kg to £6.45/kg (€7.63/kg to €7.74/kg incl VAT).

There continues to be increased pressure from imports from outside the EU on the UK market.

Non-EU supplies now account for 20% of UK beef imports, with Australia coming in with the highest imports in 2025 with just over 13,000 tonnes (t).

New Zealand imports came in at 12,950t, while Brazilian imports took third position at 10,558t.

Irish beef was the largest import at 148,392t, but that was down 12.5% on 2024 levels.

Last week’s kill was just under 4,000 head behind the same week in 2025. The total kill so far in 2025 is running about 12,000 animals ahead of the 2025 kill.

World markets

Brazil exported just over one million head of live cattle in 2025, reaching a new annual record and exceeding the 2024 figure by 4.8%.

Turkey was the main destination, overtaking Iraq. Turkey accounted for 32.9% of Brazil’s total exports and increased its purchases by 9.4% in 2025.

Egypt came in as the second-most popular destination for 2025, with 17.7% – a 13.7% increase on 2024. Morocco came in third with 17.2% of 2025 Brazilian live exports, quadrupling its numbers in 2025.