Beef trade will not be immune to this global health crisis

THE question on every beef finisher’s mind up until last weekend was: will factory prices improve as we go further into the year?

That question has now been replaced by how the coronavirus will affect the trade.

It would be foolish to think that the Irish beef trade will be immune from corona fallout, but gauging the impact is an entirely different matter.

As of yesterday, factory prices remained steady with bullocks on a base of €3.65/ kg, with €3.70 here and there, while your heifer was unchanged at €3.70/kg.

Prices for cull cows and young bulls also seemed unaffected yesterday, with U-grade bulls averaging €3.60/kg, Rs €3.50/kg and better Os on €3.40/kg.

R-grade cows varied from €3.20-3.30/kg, O-grades €3.10-3.20/kg, while your better P was €2.90/kg.

So will prices hold in the climate of uncertainty created by fears of a global pandemic?

Some sources in the processing business are reporting a slowing in orders as their customers take stock.

The factories’ current hope appears to be, business may slow down but it won’t shut down.

Food production and its distribution is a matter of national security for all nations.

We’ll live without new phones from China or new cars from Germany, but keeping a country’s population adequately fed is an entirely different matter.

I had two reports over the weekend of lorry drivers very reluctant to travel to Italy. On the face of it such fears appear justified. However, we are in unknown territory.

Should the virus get into the broader community, will the shutting down of schools and businesses help? Or is this a case of too much information?

As my local garage man said to me: “We now get all sorts of weather warnings. Yellow, red, blue, black, whereas before you were told there will be a storm on Wednesday, mind yourself.”

Moving away from the coronavirus speculation, Jim Bushe of New Ross Mart commented on the factories’ ability to move the goalposts in relation to spec when buying.

“When you see a factory agent pushing a 57-month, 900kg Limousin bullock to €2,050 there is a message in there somewhere,” he said.

The factories appear to be hoping that while business may slow down, it won’t shut down

Three months ago, factories would have had a list of issues with such an animal, he said.

For those with heavy out-ofspec stock at home, however, factories continue to quote age and weight as problems.

Looking at Department kill figures for cull cows and young bulls for the week ending February 23, you see that despite the overall kill excluding calves running at 36,804, the total number of cull cows and young bulls was 1,982 behind the same week last year.

This might mean factories are finding it tighter when going down the manufacturing beef road.