North-west bullocks up 2p/lb

Marts: A rise of 2p/lb in beef prices in the north west has set a new record year to date return for R grade bullocks at over 111p/lb - the strongest weekly gain in 2005 and the highest paid for years.

Donegal Meats regained the leadership in beef price growth with a boost in the price paid to 111.2p/lb, well ahead of the national average gain of just under 1p/lb which returned an average of 108p/lb for R4L bullocks across the country last week.

AIBP (Rathkeale) added 1.5p/lb to bring the average paid to 108.5p/lb, with a similar gain at Charleville Foods bringing the return to 107p/lb at the plant.

The farmer pay sheet returns show that Euro Foods and Moyvalley paid averages for R4L bullocks of more than 109p/lb, followed by Liffeys, Newgrange, Exel and AIBP (Rathkeale) each averaging just under 109p/lb. AIBP Group average gained 0.5p/lb to 108p/lb, Dawn Group adding 0.6p/lb to bring the group average to just under 108p/lb, while Kepak Group was unchanged paying an average of 108p/lb.

The top price overall for bullocks was 112.4p/lb for U grade at Kepak (Athleague) and 113.3p/lb for U grade heifers at Kepak (Clonee).. Donegal Meats and Slaney Meats were also strong contenders on price for U grade bullocks. The average for O4L bullocks was 106.3p/lb.