While we may be only in the first week of November, Halloween has come and gone and all attention is turning to the next big holiday season which is Christmas.

Peak purchases by consumers in shops for the holiday period are just six to seven weeks away and this has meant beef factories have already started to line up supplies to fill the lucrative Christmas market.

Prime cattle supplies are tightening and prices have held very solid this week on the back of good demand.

Factory agents are also reporting a lot more backward cattle in sheds after a tricky 2023 grazing season.

Bullocks are being quoted at €4.55/kg to €4.60/kg this week, with fewer quotes at the lower end over the last few days.

Heifers are working off €4.60/kg to €4.65/kg, with more life in the trade for top-quality heifers and €4.70/kg being paid to a number of operators for loads of choice heifers.

Regular customers and those dealing with numbers continue to work 10c to 20c/kg ahead of quoted prices.

The bull trade remains pretty stable, with €4.80/kg being paid for U grading under-24-month bulls this week.

R grading bulls are being quoted at €4.70/kg to €4.80/kg, with a little more going to regular suppliers and those with numbers.

O and P grading bulls are trading at 5c/kg to 10c/kg less than this.

Under-16-month bulls are generally working off a base price of €4.60/kg to €4.65/kg.

Cow prices

Good, well-fleshed cows remain a solid trade. Light P1 parlour cows remain under pressure, with many factories shying away from the poorer cows this week

Some factories are quoting as low as €2.00/kg and under for these dairy cows, with others refusing to take the cows that have been bought in a mart.

Well-fleshed P+3 cows continue to trade at €3.70/kg to €3.80/kg, depending on weight and quality.

O grading cows are working off €3.90/kg to €4.10/kg, while good R grading cows are coming in at €4.10/kg to €4.30/kg.

U grading cows are being quoted at €4.30/kg to €4.40/kg. The live trade for cull cows has waned a little this week on the back of poorer demand from Northern Ireland customers.

Factories continue to shy away from poorly fleshed dairy cows, with some refusing to kill light cows lacking flesh this week. Some factories have implemented a minimum farm residency rule to avoid having to kill cows shortly after having been bought in marts.

Last week’s kill came in 350 head higher than the previous week at 40,458 head, the highest kill so far in 2023.

Interestingly though, the prime bullock and heifer kill fell almost 500 head last week, with the bullock kill seeing a massive drop of 940 head in seven days.

The cow kill, on the other hand, went up by 723 cows to cross 10,000 for the first week in 2023.

Taking a look at the latest data in the Bord Bia beef price tracker, it shows Irish beef price beef prices lagging behind by 37c/kg, which means a lot more improvement in Irish beef quotes is necessary to keep up with our main export markets.

NI comment

A work stoppage being carried out by Department for Agriculture vets in NI has led to some severe disruption of the cattle and sheep kill.

Union members in the Veterinary Service Animal Health Group (VSAHG) started the action at midnight on Sunday night. The strike is expected to cause a backlog in getting cattle killed in NI for the next fortnight. The strike will also see disruption to NI live imports and exports of cattle.

Despite the disruption, NI factories still remain anxious for cattle in the run-up to Christmas, with many standing on at last week’s quotes for next week and the week after.