Factories are taking the opportunity to apply more pressure to the trade this week.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel, with numbers of finished cattle expected to tighten a lot in the next two to three weeks as the grass flush subsides.

This will coincide with the traditional increase in demand for the Christmas market and quotes will increase again.

It’s a long way to get what will be needed to cover winter finishers, but it will start to move in the right direction.

There are reports of a lot of under-fleshed cattle being slaughtered at the moment, with factories applying heavy penalties to these animals.

Farmers are advised to head to the mart ring if in doubt. In some cases where factories are operating for cattle, the mart ring could be a better option.

Bullocks are working off €4.55/kg, with €4.60/kg being paid in a few cases where deals were already done last week.

Heifer quotes have also received a cut, with €4.60/kg being the maximum that a lot of beef factories were quoting on Monday.

There are isolated deals being done at 5c to 10c/kg higher than this for specific loads of heifers to regular suppliers.

Cows take a knock

Cows have also taken a knock, with reduced factory quotes also hitting the mart trade over the weekend.

Wet weather has seen more cows move off dairy farms in the last week and this is causing delays in some factories with getting cows killed.

P grading cows have dropped to €4/kg to €4.10/kg in the last week.

O grading cows are working off €4.20/kg to €4.25/kg, while R grading cows are generally being bought at €4.40/kg.

Factories are concentrating on looking after the bigger players this week, with some farmers with smaller numbers of cows seeing a delay in getting cows killed.

Bulls are working off €4.55/kg to €4.60/kg for R grades and €4.65/kg for U grades.

A couple of bigger players have been able to get 5c to 10c/kg more, but this has been confined to those dealing in big numbers.

P and O grading bulls are working off €4.40/kg to €4.50/kg. Under-16-month bulls are being quoted at €4.55/kg to €4.60/kg.

While there are reports of cattle supplies getting tighter as we move into the winter months, this appears to be having little effect on the factories’ ability to continue to chip away at beef quotes.

Kill figures

Last week’s kill came in at just over 40,000 head. This is the first time the kill has crossed 40,000 since March 2020.

There was an unusual increase of almost 500 head of bulls to take the bull kill over 2,000 for the first time in a number of weeks.

The current move to cut quotes flies in the face of the current increases farmers are seeing on their input costs.

Irish Farmers’ Association livestock chair Brendan Golden said: “Attempts by some factories to talk down the trade is unjustified and there is up to 10c/kg of a difference between quoted and paid prices this week.

“The latest prime export benchmark price is 27c/kg ahead of the prime Irish composite price, reflecting the strength of the market.

“Prices in the UK and EU have strengthened over the past week and factories must come forward with higher prices that return the full value of the current market.”

NI comment

Factories are starting to ramp up throughput of prime cattle to fill Christmas orders.

Quotes remain on 426p/kg (€5.10/kg inc VAT) for U-3 grading animals, but this falls well below price deals on offer.

Steers are generally on 438p/kg (€5.24/kg), with heifers on 442p/kg (€5.29/kg), while young bulls are on 432p/kg (€5.17/kg). Cull cows are a steady trade, with prices typically around 380p/kg (€4.55/kg) for R3 grading animals.