Last week saw the beef kill dip below 30,000 for the first time this year according to Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine figures for the week ending May 9.
Although last week’s kill is marginally down on previous weeks the kill remains well ahead of this time last year. In late May, the cumulative beef kill since the start of the year broke the 500,000 mark almost a month ahead of 2013.
Last week the beef kill was 29,629 up on the corresponding week in 2013 by 12%. This brought the cumulative kill above the half million mark to 595,394.
Driving the surge in cattle throughput has been increases in supplies of heifers and steers which are both up 17% and 13% respectively. Last week, all categories were again up apart from the cow kill which showed a 7% fall on the same month last year. The steer kill was up some 18% on the corresponding week in 2013 to 9,648. Similarly, the heifer kill was up 15% to 8,334.