Martbids Database: factories out filling feedlots

Factories have moved out this week to start to fill their feedlots ahead of the winter finishing period.

This is earlier than normal, with some of the larger processors not moving out until November in 2023.

The earlier move again hammers home the point that factories are concerned about supplies coming into the back end of the year.

Industry sources are predicting cattle supplies available for slaughter will get very tight in the run-up to Christmas.

Factories are taking action now to avoid having to increase prices at Christmas.

The number of factory feedlot cattle continues to increase year on year, with almost 25% of the national kill coming from feedlots.

The higher proportion of cattle coming from factory-controlled feedlots is bad new for finishers, but good news for store producers, as factories have added some spark to the mart trade in the last few weeks.

Weanling sales continue to perform very well, with exporters driving the trade.

Weanling exports are currently running 45% ahead of 2023 levels, while store exports are running a massive 63% ahead of 2023 levels.

We go into detail on pages 40-41 of the main paper this week on what countries Irish cattle are being exported to and what the outlook is like for the rest of 2024.

The next month will see peak weanling sales take place across the country, with big numbers coming out during the month of October ahead of winter housing.

At the moment, there is no sign of any letup in demand for Irish weanlings and stores, with boats booked by a number of Irish exporters right up until the end of 2024.

A shortage of forward store cattle in Northern Ireland has also seen big numbers travelling north over the last two weeks.

The Northern Ireland beef price continues to run well ahead of the southern price, so this means that these customers have a strong hand when it comes to purchasing stores.

One northern customer left a cheque for almost €200,000 in a mart last week for his purchases on one day.

Taking a look at this week’s Irish Farmers Journal Martbids analysis, we see that bullocks were one of the highlights of this week’s mart trade.

Top-quality bullocks in the 400kg to 500kg weight bracket came in at €3.25/kg this week, a 17c/kg lift on the previous week.

Heavy bullocks also saw a positive, with top-quality bullocks over 600kg coming in at €3.12/kg this week, up 9c/kg.

Average-quality bullocks were also up this week, with 500kg to 600kg bullocks in the average-quality category coming in at €2.85/kg.

Even lesser-quality bullocks saw an improvement this week, with dairy-cross bullocks coming in at €2.46/kg.

Friesian bullocks hit as high as €2.30/kg in some marts this week. Heifers were back a little on the previous week, with heavy heifers back 27c/kg from the previous week’s high of €3.54/kg.

The weanling trade continues on a positive path, with 300kg to 400kg bull weanlings in the top quality category coming in at €3.97/kg.