September is the month where factory procurement managers are rolled out to ring their hands and talk about dear stores and how the price has to come back.

While a few have been taking this line in the last few weeks, ringside buyers don’t appear to have their listening hats on.

The forward store trade has lit up in the last two weeks, with a few big operators starting to move out to fill up sheds ahead of autumn store sales.

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Some of these bigger buyers were waiting on beef prices to bottom out and drop further than they did.

There was a thought that beef price would drop lower and this would mean cheaper stores, but the steadying up in the beef trade over the last two weeks has instilled a new confidence in the bidding fingers and in turn the trade has lifted.

Mart activity

Speaking to mart managers around the country, they are reporting a lot more activity in the last seven to 10 days, with a few big northern buyers also back in action both ringside and online.

Elphin Mart manager Ciaran Lynch reported an exceptional trade for heifers in Elphin at its annual show and sale of heifers on Wednesday.

All eyes will be on a few big weanling sales this week to see if the good trade continues for weanlings.

Exporters remain very active, with top-end weanlings making very good money at the opening sales.

Dry cows also continue to be a very strong trade, with a few NI wholesalers back in the market for heavy fleshed cows this week driving on the trade.

These types have been hitting €2.50/kg to €2.70/kg in marts this week, way in excess of what cows are worth to kill in the factory, especially if you are working with small numbers.

Friesian cows out of the parlour are trading around 80c/kg to €1/kg, with heavier fleshier types trading for €1.20/kg to €1.40/kg.

MartBids data

Taking a look at this week’s MartBids analysis table, we see that heavy cattle had a good week in marts, with the overall picture being that of a very steady trade.

Numbers continue to improve, with a lot more animals being presented for sale.

Heavy heifers over 600kg were a similar trade to last week, with the top-end heifers coming in at €2.92/kg - an increase of 7c/kg on last week’s trading.

That means a heifer weighing 650kg is coming into €1,898. If that 650kg heifer was slaughtered in a factory and killed out at 56% on a grade of U=3+, she would come into €1,831 if she got all her bonuses. That’s almost €70/head extra in the mart ring.

It’s a similar story for other categories of stock. Moving to the bullock rings and the 600kg-plus bullock was up 10c/kg to €2.83/kg this week. The top quality 500kg to 600kg bullock was up 18c/kg to €2.96/kg. There is still value out there, with lighter bullocks in the 400kg to 500kg category a little easier this week.

Weanlings continue to be a solid trade, with the top-end bulls in the 300kg to 400kg category at €3.33/kg. Average quality in the 300kg to 400kg bracket came in at €2.99/kg.