Moving from an already high position, the number of cattle slaughtered in export approved beef plants last week climbed by 1.3% or 475 head compared to the previous week, official figures show.
Extra heifers – namely the slaughtering of 848 more heifers – was responsible for this increase, as all of the other main categories of cattle posted decreases.
Young bull throughput dipped by 2.9%; aged bull throughput fell by 10.3%; the cow kill fell by 1.5%; and steers were back 0.6%.
Meanwhile, moving on to the cumulative beef kill for 2018, figures from the Department of Agriculture show that almost 1.25 million cattle have been slaughtered this year – up 42,842 head or 3.6% on the corresponding period in 2017.
Throughput increases were witnessed in the young bull, bull, cow and heifer categories, but steer throughput has declined by 8,339 head or 1.8% – largely due to the rise in bull slaughterings.