Over 40,000 cattle were processed in the week ending Sunday, October 22, making it the highest weekly kill of cattle to date this year.
Latest beef kill figures show 40,070 cattle (excluding veal) were slaughtered at Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) approved factories in week 42 of this year.
Generally speaking, late October or early November tends to see the largest weekly kills of cattle.
Last year, the two-highest weekly kills were seen in weeks 41 and 42 which ran from October 10 to October 24.
The table below shows the beef kill from week 42 of this year versus last year and gives an overview of the cumulative beef kill this year versus last year.
Type: Week ending
October 22Equivalent
Last YearCumulative
2023Cumulative
2022Young bulls 1,628 1,938 94,953 108,068 Bulls 518 496 23,273 23,599 Steers 18,093 18,547 562,885 587,132 Cows 9,356 8,083 316,482 319,567 Heifers 10,475 11,142 392,407 406,296 Total 40,070 40,206 1,390,000 1,444,662
Week 41 of this year was the highest weekly kill of both steers and cows. The highest weekly heifer kill was in week seven, in mid-February.
The highest weekly young bull kill was in the second week of January at 3,816 head.
The cumulative beef kill to date this year is now 54,662 head of cattle below 2022 supply levels.
Analysis from Bord Bia suggests that supplies of prime cattle will increase in the final quarter of this year bringing the overall supply to approximately 20,000head below last year.
It remains to be seen to what extent this forecasted trend will materialise.
The graph below shows how weekly beef kills this year have been comparing to last year.
As can be seen from the graph above, the cumulative weekly beef kills this year have been trending below last year’s supplies.
Bord Bia has forecast the supply of cows to drop 4% in the final quarter of this year however, with changes to nitrates rules and severely heavy rainfall countrywide over the past few weeks, farmers could nwell opt to cull additional cows which would drive up cow kill numbers.