Prime cattle supplies are starting to tighten, with factories concentrating on their own supplies over the last seven to 10 days.

The Galway Races has shut down a lot of avenues for stock in the west, with most marts there operating on reduced days or shutting fully for the week.

This has meant agents haven’t been as able to hoover up supplies from marts.

Farmers in the west also generally wind down for the week, with marketing of cattle put on the back burner for the festival.

This has meant quotes have remained steady this week, but, as one agent said to me, ‘the quote is one thing, but the price we are paying is another’.

Factories appear to be adopting a hard line on official quotes, with some issuing quotes of €4.90/kg for bullocks this week and €4.95/kg for heifers.

However, very few cattle were purchased at these quotes this week, with the majority of bullocks moving at €4.95/kg to €5.00/kg and heifers being bought at €5.00/kg to €5.05/kg.

Some of the independent factories appear to be stronger on quotes this week.

For those dealing with numbers and regular customers, there’s quotes available 5c to 10c/kg higher than this.

Sweetheart deals are getting plentiful again, with haulage, weights and guaranteed prices for a few weeks all back on the table.

Aberdeen Angus cattle continue to attract premiums of between 25c and 30c/kg, with Herefords attracting a bonus of between 10c and 20c/kg, depending on the factory.

Flat prices of €5.30/kg to €5.35/kg are available in some factories for in-spec Aberdeen Angus heifers.

Cows

R grading cows are working off €4.70/kg to €4.80/kg. O+ suckler cows are generally working off €4.40/kg to €4.60/kg, while O grading dairy cows are being bought at €4.30/kg to €4.35/kg.

P+3 cows are working off €4.10/kg to €4.20/kg, depending on weight, age and flesh.

The mart trade is still a good option for farmers with smaller numbers of cows, with agents still very active for heavy cows.

The cow kill has continued to drop off in a big way. The last big weekly cow kill was 9,780 cows at the beginning of July. Last week’s kill came in at 7,990, a drop of almost 600 cows on last week and a drop of almost 2,000 cows in four weeks.

Bulls

Under-24-month bulls are still working off a €5.30/kg to €5.35/kg base price for U grading bulls. R grading bulls are coming in at €5.20/kg to €5.30/kg, while O grading bulls are being bought at €5.00/kg to €5.10/kg.

P grading bulls are working off €5.00/kg, depending on weight and flesh cover.

Under-16 month bulls are generally working off a €5.00/kg to €5.10/kg base price.

The young bull kill has seen a huge fall off in the last six weeks. There was 3,225 young bulls killed in the week beginning 10 June 2024. This has dropped by over 50% to 1,541 bulls slaughtered last week.

Prices across the water continue to remain very solid, with R4L bullocks coming in at 481p/kg (€6.05/kg incl VAT) this week, some 90c/kg ahead of the Irish price.

The latest Kantar data from supermarket shoppers in the UK is positive for beef sales in the last 12 weeks. Volumes of beef sales are up almost 1% and within this mince sales are up 6.3% and steak sales down 2.1%.

The UK kill continues to contract, with a lower kill compared with last week and over 1,000 head lower than the same week in 2023.

NI comment

Quotes are steady at northern plants with 460p/kg (€5.77/kg inc VAT) for U-3 animals. That is well short of deals on offer with factory agents chasing cattle. Steers and heifers are making 486p to 488p/kg (€6.09 to €6.12/kg) for in-spec animals, with cull cows on 370p to 400p/kg (€4.64 to €5.02/kg).