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Last week’s beef kill has defied expectations and increased by 1,302 head to 37,443.
Many had thought that the kill would remain at a lower level after it decreased by 2,107 head (to 36,141) in the wake of disruptions to normal processing caused by ex-hurricane Ophelia.
While last week’s steer kill did tighten, falling 1,098 to 15,893, increased throughput in the cow, young bull and heifer category bolstered the recovery in throughput.
Cow throughput increased 1,460 to 8,751 head in line with higher numbers of empty cows moving from dairy herds.
Young bull throughput increased 539 head to 3,405 while heifer throughput rose 350 to 8,830 head.
Reports suggest the higher throughput is being driven by heifers housed early and now being drafted for sale, with more bulls in an 18- to 20-month production system now coming on stream.
75,000 extra processed
The kill is 3,150 head higher than the corresponding week in 2016 and as such continues to contribute to a significantly higher kill in 2017.
As shown in Table 1, the annual kill is running 75,393 above 2016 levels with the largest increase of 45,804 head stemming from steers.
If the kill for the remaining nine weeks of the year follows a similar format to 2016 where throughput was recorded at 288,000, then total throughput for 2017 will be in the region of 1.71m head. 
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