The positive mood continues in the beef trade this week, with factories continuing to run short of prime cattle.

Procurement managers continuing to cold-call suppliers looking for finished cattle is a sure sign that finished cattle are in very tight supply.

Bullocks are generally moving at €4.80/kg to €4.85/kg, with heifers being quoted at €4.90/kg to €5.00/kg, depending on numbers and quality.

Quotes have even increased during the week, with some procurement managers pointing to further increases taking place next week as demand outstrips supply.

Flat deals of as high as €5.30/kg are being paid for Aberdeen Angus heifers, with €5.15/kg also being paid for good Friesian bullocks.

As is always the case in times of scarcity, processors are more than willing to move off grid and offer flat price deals to get cattle across the line. On-the-grid bonuses of up to 25c/kg are available for traditional breeds.

Aberdeen Angus and Hereford heifers are in big demand, with a number of wholesalers very active in marts this week for heifers coming close to slaughter.

Cow quotes

Cow quotes have also taken a jump this week, with €4.70/kg now on the table for U grading cows.

R grading cows are working off €4.50/kg to €4.60/kg, with O grading cows coming in at €4.30/kg to €4.40/kg. Well-covered P grading cows are hitting €4.00/kg to €4.10/kg.

There is still good demand for bulls, with €5.10/kg to €5.20/kg being paid for U grading bulls in some plants.

Regular suppliers have been able to negotiate hard on price this week, with processors switching to young bulls where bullocks and heifers were in short supply.

R grading bulls are trading for €4.90/kg to €5.00/kg. Under-16-month bulls are working off €4.80/kg to €4.90/kg base price on the grid.

Quotes this week don’t really reflect what is being paid, with agents given a lot of leeway, especially on larger loads of cattle.

One agent told me his instructions from his factory this week were to buy them as cheap as he can, but don’t lose them.

There’s probably 5c to 10c/kg in every agent at the moment and the advice is to sell hard in the next two weeks when the ball is at the farmer’s foot.

Deals are also being completed on weights and transport, with some leeway also being given on in-spec bonus criteria.

Last week’s kill came in at just over 36,000, a fall of just over 1,700 head on the previous week. The big story is in the prime cattle kill, which saw a massive 1,300 head wiped off it in a week.

The cow kill has also eased almost 300 head, down to 10,769, still a very high kill, but down from last week’s record. The bull kill saw an increase of 300 head to 3,134 last week with some processors turning to their larger feeders for throughput last week.

Closing the gap

The Bord Bia price tracker is still showing an almost 40c gap between the Irish price and that of our main markets.

This gap has closed in the last week, but has a lot more closing to do to come close to EU and UK prices. The Scottish price for R4L heifers moved to €5.66/kg last week, with big demand for prime cattle across the water.

Northern Ireland

Tighter supplies are also affecting the beef trade in Northern Ireland and farmers with prime cattle are in a strong position to push for higher prices.

Base quotes are up 2p/kg to 430p/kg (€5.27/kg inc VAT), but this falls well below what is on offer.

Steers are generally 444p/kg (€5.44/kg), with 2p to 4p/kg more for bigger numbers.

Heifers are making 446p to 450p/kg (€5.46 to €5.52/kg), with good-quality cows from 360p to 380p/kg (€4.41 to €4.66/kg).