The beef trade continues to work its way through a tough couple of weeks.

Quotes are back another 10c/kg this week, with base prices for bullocks coming in at €7.10/kg and base prices for heifers working off €7.20/kg.

Most factories have next week’s cattle purchased at this stage, with all bought at this week’s prices with no changes expected now until the new year.

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Larger finishers, as always, haven’t been hit as hard as smaller finishers in the last few weeks, with some now working 30c to 40c/kg ahead of the irregular supplier.

Some of these finishers would have purchased stores at peak prices in September and would have been expecting prices to be well north of €7/kg when it comes to spring 2026.

There appears to be issues around the Aberdeen Angus bonus, with some factories dropping the bonuses being paid by 10c/kg in the last few weeks.

They are highlighting increased sexed semen usage, leaving a lot of Aberdeen Angus cattle in the market, with some saying they have an oversupply on their books and hence the downward pressure on the bonus.

The other problem that they haven’t spoken about is the reduction in Friesian male cattle being finished.

There are still some processors buying in-spec Aberdeen Angus cattle on a flat-rate basis, with €7.50/kg buying a lot.

Cows

Cows are also back a touch, with some pressure on the trade.

P+3 cows are coming in at €6.40/kg to €6.50/kg. Good O grades with flesh are still making €6.50/kg to €6.70/kg, with quality R grading cows coming in at €6.70/kg to €6.80/kg and a little above it in some locations.

Well-fleshed U grading cows are still coming in at €7.00/kg in some factories this week.

The mart is still the place if you have small numbers of cows to sell, with top-quality cows still making close to €4/kg in some marts this week.

Bulls

The trade in young bulls also eased. The going rate being offered for R grading bulls is in the region of €7.30/kg to €7.40/kg, with U grading bulls touching €7.30/kg, while P and O grading bulls are coming in at €7.10/kg to €7.20/kg.

Under-16-month bulls are working off a base price of €7.10/kg to €7.20/kg this week before any grading or in-spec bonuses are applied.

Last week’s kill remained stable, with the kill coming in at just under 32,500 head, an increase of about 400 on the previous week.

The cow kill came in at 7,863 head, a rise of almost 300 on the previous week. All other categories remained at a similar level to the previous week.

Last week’s kill was 6,000 head behind where it was in the same week in 2024.

Looking at the year to date, there are now over 200,000 fewer cattle slaughtered in 2025 compared with 2024 when calves are included in the figure.

Tight supplies

IFA livestock chair Declan Hanrahan said: “Firm demand for beef and tight supplies of cattle here and in our key export markets is underpinning the trade.

“Prices in our key markets are strong and must be reflected in the direction of travel of our beef prices.

“Attempts by factories and their agents to talk down the trade are not justified with factories openly paying 10 to 20 c/kg above quotes to secure cattle, particularly for larger and specialist lots.”

Prices across the water have come under a little pressure this week, with all stock back 1p to 3p/kg. R4L bullocks are coming in at 671p/kg (€8.10/kg).

French young bulls are trading at €7.85/kg this week, while the same bulls are up at €8.07/kg in Italy. Further afield, beef in Brazil this week is trading at €3.40/kg, some 5c/kg behind where it was 12 months ago.