Finished cattle quotes have finally started to move?? with increased appetite from processors for cows and heifers this week.

Heifers are now trading at €3.60/kg to €3.65/kg base?? with 5c/kg to 10c/kg extra available to regular sellers.

Steers have remained at €3.60 but cow quotes have also moved on 5c/kg to 10c/kg, with O+3 cows now trading at €2.90/kg to €3/kg.

Last week’s kill took another jump to 37,329 head of cattle slaughtered, up 907 cattle on the previous week and up 2,111 head on the same week in 2019.

Finished cattle supplies are expected to remain tight for the foreseeable future. Department of Agriculture AIMS data on shows that on 1 May there was a drop of 83,000 in the number of beef cattle in the 12- to 24-month category and 10,000 in the 24- to 36-month category compared to 2019.

There has been criticism that the Irish beef price had not moved in line with our main export market in the UK in recent weeks.

IFA president Tim Cullinan said that factories have to stop driving farmers out of business and give an immediate beef price increase.

The Northern Ireland beef trade remains strong with plants working on an opening price of 360p/kg (€4/kg excluding VAT) with deals available well ahead of base levels with steers and heifers generally moving from 365p/kg to 375p/kg (€4.05/kg to €4.16/kg) for U-3 animals.

Northern Ireland factories are very active in the south paying, 10c to 20c/kg above Irish prices. There were 820 cattle exported to Northern Ireland last week.