Continuing on from past weeks, factory agents continue to actively source prime cattle, but there is little change in prices offered.

Like last week, general quotes continue to hover around the 365c/kg mark for steers and 365-370c/kg for heifers. Saying that, more farmers are managing to achieve 370c/kg in recent times for heifers.

Again, regular sellers are in the best scenario to receive these higher quotes.

Bull prices remain steady and are making 350-360c/kg for R-grades and 360-370c/kg for U-grading types; O-grade bulls are hovering around the 330-340c/kg mark.

The cow trade continues to improve in terms of demand. P-grading cows are making 300-3.05c/kg, with O-grades hovering around the 305-320c/kg mark. In addition, R-grades are achieving 320-330c/kg in the beef factories.

Looking at the kill, there were some 39,981 young bulls, aged bulls, steers, cows and heifers slaughtered in Irish beef processing plants during the week ending February 23.

Northern Ireland and UK beef trade

Base quotes, from beef processing plants in Northern Ireland, have not seen much movement last week, according to the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC).

U-3 grade prime cattle last week ranged from 324-334p/kg (372-384c/kg); with quotes of 330-340p/kg (379-384c/kg) being offered by the majority of plants for both steers and heifers.

The cow trade didn’t show much change last week, with base quotes for O+3 grade cows coming in at 240-250p/kg (386-398c/kg).

Average steer prices in Northern Ireland were back last week, falling to 331.6p/kg (379.8c/kg); while R3 steer prices were also back – to 339.4p/kg (390.1c/kg).

The average heifer price was also back last week, but only very slightly; falling by 0.4p/kg to 335.3p/kg (385.3c/kg). However, R3 grade heifers were up fractionally on the previous week – to 341.8p/kg (392.7c/kg).

Both R3 steer and heifer prices were back compared to the same week last year.

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The young bull trade in the north was back last week – amounting to 311.5p/kg (358.5c/kg) on average; with R3 young bulls price falling to 324.6p/kg (373.4c/kg).

However, the cow trade did show an improvement again last week, with an O3 grade cow making 260.4p/kg (299.6c/kg). Meanwhile, the average Northern Ireland price for cows increased to 240.5p/kg (276.7c/kg) last week, according to the LMC.

In the UK last week, there was an increase in average steer prices to 335.7p/kg (386.2c/kg) and average heifer prices to 336.8p/kg (387.5c/kg). R3 grade steers and heifers also saw an increase to 342.6p/kg (394.1c/kg) and 341.5p/kg (3.928c/kg) respectively, the LMC said.

O3 cow prices did see an increase last week, up to 256.9p/kg (295.5c/kg); but this still leaves them 3.5p/kg below the Northern Ireland price for O3 cows.