The beef trade remains steady this week, with opening quotes for tomorrow starting off similar to what they finished at last week.

Bullocks and heifers are trading off a base of €3.70-€3.75/kg across the board. There are some select deals being done at €3.80/kg for heifers for those with numbers and regular sellers. Angus heifers are also in demand, with a €0.20/kg bonus being paid on top of the in-spec bonus by some factories.

Young bulls are generally trading off a base of €3.70-€3.75/kg. Under-24-month bulls are at €3.70-€3.75 in most plants for U grading bulls, with R grading bulls trading between €3.60/kg and €3.70/kg. Cows remain a similar trade.

Regular sellers are still able to get €0.10-€0.15/kg more out of the market. The general run of quotes are €3.00-€3.10/kg for O grading cows, with €3.20-€3.30 being paid for R grading cows.

Factories are still very anxious for stock and agents are very active in marts, with big numbers moving from marts to factories on a weekly basis. Those with small numbers are advised to head to the mart ring with stock.

Last week’s kill dropped to 34,908 head. This was the fourth week in a row that the kill has dropped week on week and, with a four-day kill taking place this week, the kill is expected to drop further. Cows saw the biggest drop, with just over 900 fewer cows killed when compared to the previous week. Heifers, cows and young bulls all saw a drop in kill numbers last week.

Young bull collapse

The big talking point for the sector is the collapse in the young bull kill. Factories have grappled with young bulls for many years but continued to slaughter them. Last year’s delays in getting young bulls killed was the final straw for many young bull finishers and many have switched to steer finishing systems in 2020.

This move has seen 49,961 fewer young bulls slaughtered in 2020 compared to 2019. This has caused short-term supply issues for factories over the last two months.

Factories would have traditionally used these young bulls as a bridge between May and July where a break occurs between shed-finished cattle and grass-finished cattle.

This lull in supply has contributed to the positive sentiment in the trade over the last few months.

There were just 1,630 young bulls killed for the week ending 24 July compared to 3,640 bulls in the corresponding week in 2019. The swing away from young bulls is likely to affect finishing farm income, with young bulls consistently being the most profitable system to operate over the past number of years.

Autumn numbers

Finished cattle numbers are likely to remain very tight for the remainder of 2020. Bord Bia had predicted a 55,000-60,000 drop in the kill for 2020. However, this wasn’t factoring in the massive swing we have seen away from young bull production. The kill is currently running 45,836 head behind the 2019 cattle kill. This would mean a further contraction of numbers going into the autumn months, which is positive news for beef finishers.