The cow trade has seen the biggest increase in quotes over the last few days, with factories anxious to meet food service orders.

Supermac’s opening, along with McDonald’s plans for opening later this month, have placed an increased demand for beef with Irish processors.

Cows are now trading between €0.50 and €0.60/kg ahead of where they were four weeks ago, with some plants paying as much as €3.25/kg for R+ cows this week.

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Last week’s kill in the Republic of Ireland stayed under 26,000 head

This week’s base quote has moved to €3.50 for in-spec steers and heifers with a premium of €0.05/kg to €0.10/kg reappearing for heifers. It is a similar story in Northern Ireland, with steers moving to the equivalent of €3.80/kg excluding VAT and heifers up to €3.90/kg excluding VAT.

Last week’s kill in the Republic of Ireland stayed under 26,000 head for the third week running, some 5,596 head behind the same week in 2019.

The national kill is down 62,485 head, a 10% drop for the first four months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. The young bull kill has taken the biggest hit in the first four months of 2020.

Processors made a move in spring 2019 to inform farmers that they may not be in a position to kill bulls for farmers and this has seen a drop of 27,726 or 29% on 2019 figures.