Dropping €25/head on last week meant Angus-cross heifer calves are the first category to fall below 2025 price levels this spring.
Data from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) calf price database shows they traded for an average of €272/head this week compared with €288 for the same time last year.
Despite this slip, it is considerably above the same time in 2024, when they sold for €91/head.
Hereford-cross heifers experienced a drop of €16/head for an average of €310 this week. However, they are still ahead of last years price of €300/head. Two years ago, they were trading for an average of €96/head.
Looking at the table, beef breed-sired heifer calves aged between three and six weeks of age are back an average €23/head since last week.
Beef-cross bull calves haven’t escaped the drop and Angus-cross bulls are back €6/head to €402, while Hereford-cross bulls traded for €433/head last week, a drop of €14.
Although falling, their prices are holding their own and well ahead of the corresponding week last year, when €366/head was paid for Angus-crosses and Hereford-cross bulls made €380.
While prices are heading downhill for beef calf prices, Friesian bulls are on the rise and, for the second week in a row, they are up €10/head. They sold for an average of €276/head last week. This is €57 above the same week last April and €214 above 2024.
Overall numbers are staying relatively steady and there’s little change in the breed make-up. Angus-crosses account for 49% of all calves featured on the table. One quarter of all calves were sired by a Hereford bull and 12% were Friesians.
EU prices
The EU average price was up €1/head for both categories of calf last week, with €302/head paid for a dairy-sired bull calves and €481/head for beef-sired bull calves.
From an Irish context, the beef-cross heifer calf price mentioned above is now below the Spanish price of €318/head and with shippers more prominent at the mart ringsides, this could lead to more demand from Spain over the coming weeks.
SHARING OPTIONS