The cattle trade has seen a major recovery in prices across all categories of livestock and in factory quotes for beef cattle this year.
As the year progressed and kill numbers remained sparse, factories found themselves competing for cattle and selling into a market where demand was rising – hence, prices paid to farmers were driven upwards.
If we take a look at the last week of August in 2020, we see the general run of factory quotes for both steers and heifers was €3.65/kg on the grid, with some processors offering a base price of €3.70/kg.
Fast forward to August 30, this year, and a base price of €4.20/kg was paid to the vast majority of suppliers for heifers this week, along with respective Quality Assurance (QA), grade and breed bonuses.
Quotes this week for steer cattle were coming in at 5c/kg less than heifer quotes however, conversations with farmers killing cattle this week would suggest that €4.20/kg could be secured for quality lots of steers also.
There are a number of factors giving rise to this year’s unprecedented rise in beef price, however, the drop in the national kill, coupled with increasing global demand for beef, are likely the main two factors driving Irish beef price upwards.
The current trend of a reduced kill echoes Bord Bia’s prediction earlier this year that the cattle supply available for slaughter is expected to take a hit by 100,000-120,000 head this year.
The shortage of cattle supply in Ireland is expected to recover in the second quarter of 2022.
This is due to calf exports suffering a decline last year and at the beginning of 2021.
Adding the males that have not been slaughtered as young bulls this year to the mix, Bord Bia projects this will increase throughput back to the levels seen in 2020.