Some of the major talking points among farmers currently include the strong beef trade and the prices being secured by heavy cattle, both in the factory and at mart.
This time last year, heifer and steer price was just approaching €4.00/kg and today, heifer base price at the higher end of the scale is just 5c/kg short of €5/kg.
Commenting on the trade, Bord Bia’s beef sector manager Mark Zieg, said that the demand for Irish beef from world markets “remains strong”.
Zieg has partially attributed this strong demand to supplies remaining tight in the UK and across the continent.
The beef sector manager noted that the current market climate has driven the Irish average R3-steer prices to €4.73/kg, excluding bonuses, as see last week.
Meanwhile, European young-bull prices have pushed on to €5.02/kg, with German young-bull prices even hitting €5.99/kg last week.
While the market situation looks fairly positive, Zieg noted that there are some reports that German demand will peak after supplies for the Easter market have been fulfilled, as this is normally the case.
Consumer demand
One matter of concern that Zieg commented on was the impact that higher beef prices will have on consumer demand for the product.
He said: “Last year, when German retail prices rose 1.9% at retail level, volume sales dropped by 3.7%.
“In the first two months of this year that trend has accelerated, with prices rising a further 7.7%, leading to sales volumes declining by 16.8%.
“Similar trends can be observed in the UK’s retail sales figures.”
Rising cost of production
While beef price is rising, the cost of producing beef is also soaring.
“Furthermore, we need to factor in the impact of rising costs of production on farms which has already lead to huge price increases on inputs like feed and fertiliser,” Zieg continued.
“There is concern that the Ukraine war’s impact on these costs is yet to be factored in,” he added.
“The impact this will have is impossible to calculate at this point, however we are likely to see more negative consumption impacts arising from inflation.
“We could also see more culling of herds around Europe as farmers avail of the current high prices, while reducing their exposure to higher production costs over the next winter,” Zieg concluded.