Agriland’s weekly beef export factory price report for the week ending June 25, 2014, shows a number of trends.

Steers – On a grade-by-grade basis, above average prices were noted again this week in plants in the southern half of the country and in selected plants in in the west and northwest.

This week also saw a repeat of the regional dispersal of the top-100 prices. With plants in the southern half of the country largely quoting the top prices, below average prices per grade were largely noted in plants across the midlands.

Heifers – Many of the top-100 prices quoted during the week occurred within ABP factories plants, with ABP, Nenagh and Waterford standing out from the crowd.

Cows – Many of the better or above average prices quoted in the week were noted in the midlands, west and north-west processing plants for higher grading suckler cows. In the south, there was a wide variation in the prices quoted for dairy cull cows

Trying to get your head around beef pricing in Ireland can be a little daunting. Even though the pricing grid encompassing all export factories is published weekly, there is a huge volume of information to absorb. The pricing grid itself has 225 grades. Instead of printing the pricing grids for each individual factory, Agriland has created an easy to use colour coded graphic that shows:

• If the average price quoted for that beef factory an individual grade was above the national average, the grade on the grid is shaded in a blue colour.

• However, if the price listed was below the national average for that grade, we have shaded the grid with a red colour.

• To round it all off, we have also selected the top-100 quoted prices across all 24 plants and highlighted them in green.