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The live trade for cattle has weakened as dry weather and lower beef prices affect buying demand.
At the same time, there has been an increase in throughput, particularly of store cattle and late spring-calving cows.
Based on MartWatch data, steers weighing 500kg to 600kg were down 13p/kg last week, compared with the previous week, for both good and average-quality cattle.
On a 550kg animal this amounts to a drop of £71 in sale value.
Beef price
Factory quotes have fallen to between 350p/kg and 358p/kg this week, and are down by 10p/kg inside the last fortnight.
With increasing supplies of finished cattle coming on to the market, and factories operating on short weeks, deals above base price are limited to larger finishers.
According to the chair of the UFU beef and lamb committee, Sam Chesney, the reduction in prices is unacceptable given that consumer demand is high, especially for BBQ cuts.
“Farmers deserve to be treated fairly. All signals are that the market is strong, there is demand for beef and processors must share the gains with primary producers,” said Chesney.
Meanwhile, according to Bord Bia market data, UK beef prices were the highest on offer across EU member states during June, at an average of €4.27/kg based on an R3 grading heifer.
Exchange rate
At an exchange rate of 88p to €1, this converts to 376.6p/kg.
Across Britain, the average was 377.3p/kg, while R3 heifer prices in NI averaged 371.5p/kg.
Across other EU member states, this NI price was only beaten by Sweden on 375.6p/kg.
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