Bullocks up 25-30c/kg year on year
AS the hammers fall for the final time in 2017 in marts around the country it’s time to take a look at the trade.
A fortnight ago prices moved nicely upwards across all sections of the bullock and heifer table, while last week the trade seemed to stall for bullocks and the ringside tables for heifers shows slippage.
Before getting into the figures, a word of warning: as we come to the end of the trading year numbers of stock at marts goes into sharp decline as in general does the quality and the number of truly active buyers.
The reality is that if you haven’t got 95pc of your replacements bought by the end of the first week of December what have you been doing for the last few months?
All that said feedlot buyers and those at the factory end of the business tend to continue on regardless of the season.
The average price of your bullock from the lightest to the heaviest fell last week by between 1-3c/kg or from €3-15/ hd. Looking back to December 2016 one thing in relation to the bullock table sticks out like a sore thumb.
This time last year factory prices for bullocks ran from €3.70-3.75/kg, while this week bullock quotes are in the region of €3.95-4.00/kg — a 25-30c/ kg difference. Has this factory improvement worked its way back to the mart trade? Yes and no is the answer.
The bullock under 500kg is really no better off than he was 12 months ago on average. At an average price of €2.03/kg the 300-399kg animal is a bare 3c/ kg ahead of where he was this time last year, while the 400499kg bullock hasn’t improved at all with his 2016 Christmas price of €1.87/kg mirrored this year. So where has the extra hundred or so euro paid out by the factories recently gone? Apart from paying contractors, feed and fertiliser merchants the main beneficiaries have been those sellers with heavy or forward bullocks.
Last week’s average price in the 500-599kg section was €1.95/kg, while 12 months ago that average was 7c/kg less, that’s a €35-42/hd difference. The figures in the 600kg+ section show an average improvement of 13c/kg.
The story with the heifers last week is that the further up the weight divisions you went the worse the hammering you got. All that said last week’s mart prices for heifers are still from 5-8/kg or €18-42/hd ahead of the same time last year.
In short the finisher has bagged the majority of recent price gains for himself. However you can argue that we are in transition with increased dairy stock coming through it was inevitable their numbers would affect the pricing within the trade. Photo: Brian Farrell