Lebanon sales boost for farmers

Farmers’ confidence in the cattle trade over the coming weeks has been boosted by the news that up to €74/cwt is being offered for cattle for shipping to the Lebanon.

Filling of a vessel by Dillon Livestock Exporters, which is destined for the Lebanon is scheduled to start at Waterford early next week with a price of €74/cwt (£58) being offered to supplies for quality cattle. The shipment of bulls has met with immediate response from suppliers with capacity for the shipment booked out within hours.

This will be the first live shipment of bulls to the Lebanon by Dillons in five months and following assessment of the situation, they are expected to decide on the future of this trade. There is considerable potential in the Lebanon to take a considerable supply of cattle for the remainder of this year.

The price at which the cattle are shipped will be a determining factor, with other supply sources also interested in getting a share of the market. This has been a very valuable market in the past for shipment from Ireland of the Friesian-type of cattle, which are not good graders and difficult to get into good weights if they have a high percentage of Holstein blood.

Dillons value the Friesian cattle at €58/cwt (£46/cwt).

Live shipments have been sluggish this year showing a drop of 72% in the live export trade for weanlings and young stores, which are down from 35,000 head in 2003 to 10,000 head over the same period - to the second week in August - this year.

The live shipments for the first week of August 2004 were 112 head.

The same week last year 1,247 head were shipped.

These shippings are still far below the peak years at the start of the decade when live exports up to the beginning of August were hitting 95,000 head.