Weanlings break the €4.50/kg barrier

Can the cattle trade kick on even more? That’s the question on farmer’s lips this week with many wondering if there is more in the trade when the grass buyers surface in the next few weeks.

Another big driver of the trade in March and April are the “seven month buyers”.

These buyers have generally scaled back in stocking rate in recent years and now just buy the minimum amount of cattle to suffice meeting the minimum stocking rate for the Area of Natural Constraint Scheme (ANC). An animal purchased in March must be kept until the beginning of November to make sure payment lands in 2025.

Smaller numbers

While these buyers are generally working off smaller numbers, some like to keep quality good and because animal numbers are small, price generally doesn’t come into it. They are a key part of the trade and usually give a lift to a dull trade at this time of year.

This year’s trade is far from dull and it’s hard to know will cattle rise in price even more in the next few weeks. They certainly won’t come back as the numbers simply wont be there. Good prices right through autumn and winter have meant a lot of farmers have chosen to show stock earlier than other years to capitalise on the good trade. This will mean smaller “out to grass” sales for a lot of marts in March and April.

It’s been a really positive start to the 2025 live export trade with big numbers moving to Spain and Italy.

The latest live export data published by Bord Bia shows that there was 2,424 cattle exported to Spain up to 25 January 2025, an increase of 2300 head on the same period in 2024. The Italian market for weanlings has also got off to a strong start with 1,138 head exported up to 25 January 2025, up from 317 head in January 2024. This is in addition to big numbers moving to North Africa on boats and roll on roll off ferries. Staying closer to home more and more NI customers are moving south for their cattle requirements. The NI trade for store cattle is extremely strong on the back of a number of beef price increases since Christmas and this has pushed NI finishers south. Exports of cattle to NI are up 23% to 2290 head for the first 4 weeks of 2025.

Trade

This week’s Martbids analysis table is full of green arrows again which is a sign of a very healthy trade. In the bullock rings, top quality bullocks in the 500-600kg weight range are knocking on the door of €4/kg, coming in at €3.94/kg this week. This was up 15 cent/kg on the previous week. It was a similar story in the heifer rings, with top quality heifers in the 600kg+ weight range breaking the €4/kg barrier coming in at €4.09/kg this week, up 14 cent/kg on the previous week.

Weanling bulls saw another very positive week’s trading, with top quality weanling bulls in the 300-400kg weight bracket coming in at €4.45/kg this week.

Weanling heifers are also a very solid trade with top quality weanling heifers in the 300-400kg weight bracket coming in at €4.51/kg this week, up 13 cent/kg on the previous week.