The number of cattle slaughtered during the period January to February 2021 decreased by 17.9% when compared with the corresponding period in 2020, according to data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

A further comparison within this period shows the number of sheep slaughtered contracted by 11.6%, while pig slaughterings increased by 1.0%.

An analysis of the data for February 2021 compared with February 2020 shows cattle slaughterings decreased by 17.2%, the number of sheep slaughtered fell by 8.6% and pig slaughterings grew by 9.0%.

Price

Meanwhile, the Irish beef price is now closer to Brazil than Britain.

With the gap between the Irish and British slightly greater than that of Irish and Brazil, farmers feel they aren’t getting the value from the British market that they would hope for.