Heifers may hit €4.15/kg
Steers Heifers Cull Cows Young Bulls FACTORY bosses were at pains yesterday to give the impression that base prices were steady at €3.90/kg for bullocks and €4.00/kg for heifers, the reality is there is more to be had. If you’ve got in-spec finished bullocks €3.95/kg appears to be where the real-time price is at, while the heifer trade is seeing prices as high as €4.10/ kg floated.
These prices tend to be more prevalent the further north you go with some factories in the south appearing to be off the pace when you initially open the conversation on pricing.
All factories however seem to have “a want for heifers” to the point where one west of Ireland finisher said that “They (the factories) are dead keen for heifers and €4.15 may yet happen this week”. Prices for Aberdeen Angus are reported by IFA’s Angus Woods as having hit €4.20/kg over the weekend.
Last week’s kill set yet another record for this year at 40,541. This kill figure was arrived at after some plants worked on Saturday.
Trade for bulls sees under-16 month stock being base priced from €3.90-4.00/kg, with prices for their heavier under-24 month comrades also pushing up. Despite prices for cull cows continuing to push forward at the marts factory prices for cows continue to remain stable.
Prices have improved but numbers are at the point where everyone associated with the business from the factory boss to the dog in the yard is waiting for the week when the numbers go off the edge of a cliff. When that happens the Christmas holidays won’t come quick enough for the factories.
Our reputation as a green beef producing island is built on grass finishing with the dairy sector’s male progeny contributing immensely to that image and tonnage.
Recent commentary that dairy farmers were not in the “business of meat sales” delivered an industry wake-up call.
It raises the uncomfortable question of what the powers that be in the beef industry might do to offset the consequences of any further deterioration in the conformation and size of stock coming on to the market from that quarter.