Beef price cuts are costing €3m a week, Irish Farmers Journal analysis has shown.
Factory prices are trailing badly behind last year, with farmers getting €100 to €150 per head less for their young bulls, heifers and steers.
Prices are running 30c/kg behind 2018.
As a result, steers averaging 350kg carcase weight are down €105 per head year-on-year. Heifers averaging 320kg are down €96.
Young bulls are being hit even harder. Returns for a 400kg carcase are down €120 to €150, while higher concentrate costs have increased production costs by €30 to €50 per head.
The difference in price, taking average carcase weights and price reduction, amounts to over €3m for farmers compared to the same week last year.
The factory kill to date in 2019 is running more than 43,000 head higher than 12 months ago and this is a key factor affecting prices.
Five-year average
The total kill to date in 2019 is running 62,478 head higher than the five-year average.
The price squeeze comes as farmers react angrily to an EU proposal that they should cut production in return for the €100m Brexit beef fund.
Meanwhile, a potential Mercosur deal threatens to allow meat equating to 3.3m South American cattle into Europe.
Read more
Watch: inside one of the world’s largest meat markets in South Korea
'Blanket payment, everyone gets the same' - farmers on €100m Brexit beef fund
Beef prices: confidence taking a hammering
Beef price cuts are costing €3m a week, Irish Farmers Journal analysis has shown.
Factory prices are trailing badly behind last year, with farmers getting €100 to €150 per head less for their young bulls, heifers and steers.
Prices are running 30c/kg behind 2018.
As a result, steers averaging 350kg carcase weight are down €105 per head year-on-year. Heifers averaging 320kg are down €96.
Young bulls are being hit even harder. Returns for a 400kg carcase are down €120 to €150, while higher concentrate costs have increased production costs by €30 to €50 per head.
The difference in price, taking average carcase weights and price reduction, amounts to over €3m for farmers compared to the same week last year.
The factory kill to date in 2019 is running more than 43,000 head higher than 12 months ago and this is a key factor affecting prices.
Five-year average
The total kill to date in 2019 is running 62,478 head higher than the five-year average.
The price squeeze comes as farmers react angrily to an EU proposal that they should cut production in return for the €100m Brexit beef fund.
Meanwhile, a potential Mercosur deal threatens to allow meat equating to 3.3m South American cattle into Europe.
Read more
Watch: inside one of the world’s largest meat markets in South Korea
'Blanket payment, everyone gets the same' - farmers on €100m Brexit beef fund
Beef prices: confidence taking a hammering
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