Beef prices at highest level in 10 years
There is still an excellent trade for the heavy punched-out bullocks and the tops of these are making €450-€510 over with priced showing improvement of up to €30/head.
It is now over a decade since the beef prices were at their present level and store cattle particularly the punched-out and forward single punched animals are at their highest ever.
Producers selling stores are presently doing very well, but it is hard to see much scope left for the finishers of these high-priced animals to make a reasonable margin, unless there is a further significant increase in beef prices over the next two months.
A double punched 590kg Charolais bullock sold for a whopping €1,100 at Athenry Mart yesterday, where another lot of two punched-out Charolais weighing 630kg also sold for €1,100. Mart manager Martin McNamara described it as a "super cattle trade with double punched bullocks improved by €30/head and an exceptionally strong trade for the single punched bullocks up €20/head".
Punched-out bullocks sold for up to €430 over at Blessington Mart where up to €540 over was paid for the forward single punched bullocks. Up to €320 over was paid for forward heifers. There was an excellent trade for bullocks at Fermoy Mart where prices were marginally higher than last week.
