Sun continues to shine on the beef trade

Finishers with decent numbers of factory-ready cattle are getting above €6/kg this week.

While the temperature has dropped well below zero in all parts of the country this week, the sun continues to shine on the beef trade at the factories for producers with stock to sell.

Beef quotes at the factories continued to increase this week, as the processors came under pressure to secure sufficient supply of cattle to fill their order for replenishing shelves at the supermarkets post the Christmas demand.

Base prices for steers have edged to range 555-560 cents/kg, with more being paid by factories under the most pressure to get intake for this week's kill. The general base quote from the processors for the heifers is about 570 cents/kg with direct deals for larger numbers delivering more in some transactions.

The R-grade young bulls are in demand at 565-570 cents/kg and there is very strong demand for cows, with R-grade making 530-540 cents/kg and a bit more reported for regular suppliers.

"Finishers with decent numbers of factory-ready cattle are getting above €6/kg this week, when the bonus payments are added for the qualifying lots and I'm hearing of some producers hard selling to factories getting special deals at factories under real pressure," explained one source.

"Those cattle men who bought forward stores for finishing a few months ago are being well rewarded for their judgement, but it was a gamble because nobody in beef production has ever seen January factory prices anywhere approaching where they are this new year," he added.

The weather conditions in the south of the country in particular this week have compounded the situation against the processors.

While the road conditions in many of the counties south of the midlands made planned deliveries to the factories by producers impossible, most of the mart sales across the same region expected to resume this week were either cancelled or had very small entries for the same reason.

The overall situation impacted very heavily on the factories sourcing cattle for their planned resumption to near normal slaughtering from Monday last.

There was a good intake of 30,139 head last week for a short working week allowing for the bank holiday on New Year's Day in the middle of the week.

The supply included 10,549 steers, 9,904 heifers, 6,680 cows and 2,955 young bulls.

Final intake at the factories for 2024 show an increase of 22,809 head, equivalent to 1.28% over 2023.

The cows topped the scale at 7% increase, equal to 29,320 more than 2023, while were up 5.4% at 26,566 more than the previous year, but steers were down 12,556 head equal to a drop of 1.2%.