Beef kill: Supply hits 33,000 head for first time since April

The weekly beef kill reached 33,000 head in the week ending Sunday, August 25, marking the first week the total beef kill (excluding veal) reached that level since early April of this year.

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) figures show a total of 33,023 head of cattle were slaughtered at DAFM approved factories in the week ending Sunday, August 25.

This figure is over 1,400 head (1,456) below the number of cattle processed in the same week of last year.

46% of the beef kill last week were steers with 15,165 head processed and 22% were cows 7,302 cows slaughtered last week. 26% of last week’s cow kill was composed of heifers, with 8,741 head processed and the remainder of the kill was made up of young bulls (1,333) and bulls (682).

The table below details the beef kill for the week ending Sunday, August 25 versus the same week of last year and the cumulative beef kill this year versus last year:

As the table above shows, the beef kill this year is just under 12,600 (12,594) head above the same time period last year driven by stronger supplies in the first five months of the year.

Supplies of male cattle have fallen while cow anf heifer supplies have increased with the greatest rise seen in the cow kill which is up by over 25,000 head (25,820) on the same time period of last year.

The graph below details how weekly beef kills over the past 12 weeks have been comparing to the same 12 weeks of last year:

Supplies have increased over the past two consecutive weeks but are failing to keep pace with equivalent weeks of last year.

An overall decline in factory cattle supply of somewhere between 30-40,000 head for this year has been forecast by Bord Bia, but it remains to be seen to what extent the stronger cow kill will will neutralise this.