It seems that high meal prices hasn’t discouraged winter beef finishers from finishing cattle this year, as the weekly factory beef kill has witnessed an increase in numbers for the fourth consecutive week.
With green diesel approaching €1/L (currently at 95c/L) , urea trading freely at €920/t and a good quality, high-energy beef-finishing ration costing as far as €350/t, many speculators on the cattle trade have said beef farmers wouldn’t finish cattle this winter and would instead, store them and let them back to grass this spring.
However, the opposite seems to be the case.
The beef kill for the week commencing January 31, 2022, surpassed 35,000 head for the second consecutive week this year, totaling 36,188 head of cattle, including the 231 head of veal processed last week, according to figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
To put this into perspective, the beef kill for the same week last year stood at 30,452 cattle, leaving the fifth weekly kill for this year up by over 5,700 cattle on the same week last year.
The total number of cattle processed in the first five weeks this year is currently running ahead of the number of cattle processed in the same time frame last year.
The cumulative beef kill for this year – up to the week ending Sunday, February 6 – stands at 164,583 cattle This is up 6,528 head of cattle from the 158,055 cattle processed in the same time frame last year.
Week-on-week beef kill changes:
- Young Bulls: 3,691 head (-515 head);
- Bulls: 329 head (-36 head);
- Steers: 12,655 head (+426 head);
- Cows: 7,955 head (+356 head);
- Heifers: 11,327 head (+636 head);
- Total (including veal): 36,188 head (+964 head).
Looking at the above figures, we see that the number of Young Bulls processed last week took a tumble, falling by over 500 head on the previous week.
Meanwhile, the numbers of finished heifers seem to be increasing with last week’s factory price rise for heifers likely drawing out additional numbers while the number of steers have also increased by over 400 head.
The number of cows processed increased last week also – up by over 350 head on the previous week with prices remaining strong in this category also.
Is it good or bad that winter finishers have been so active?
The rising factory cattle throughput figures currently being seen – coupled with factories moving to increase quotes – is a good indicator that current beef price rises are coming from ever-increasing demand rather than a falling supply of cattle.
Seeing factory kill sheets filling at this time of the year bodes well for farmers who plan to finish cattle of grass this autumn. This is because it means that higher numbers of cattle have already gone through the system and it will help reduce the chance of a deluge of cattle appearing at factory lairages this autumn, which has often been used by processors as a reason to pull prices or hold back on potential price increases.
It is also worth noting that these farmers will be returning to the mart ring to replace finished cattle with either calves, weanlings or stores so farmers with mart cattle to sell will be likely meeting a strong demand from farmer customers.