Ireland remains in fifth place on the EU deadweight cattle prices league table, figures from the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) show.

Cattle prices in both Sweden and France keep them ahead of Ireland, with both Northern Ireland and Great Britain both holding second and first place respectively in the cattle prices league.

For the week ending September 13, 2015, in the Republic the average R3 heifer price was 403.2c/kg, back 11.2c/kg from the 414.4c/kg paid in the week ending August 16, 2015.

This placed it 9.5c/kg above the EU average price and 45.5/kg lower than the equivalent price in the North, the LMC said.

Looking to Northern Ireland, for the week ending September 13, the average R3 heifer price was the equivalent of 448.7c/kg, back 13.2c/kg from 462.0c/kg in the week ending August 16.

In the rest of the UK, for the week ending September 13 the average R3 heifer price was the equivalent of 485.8c/kg. This latest price is back 7.6c/kg from the week ending August 16.

The average R3 heifer price for the week ending September 13 was 393.7c/kg, down 6.5c/kg from 400.2 c/kg in the corresponding week in August.

The decline in Great Britain R3 heifer price resulted in the GB/EU price differential narrowing from 93.2/kg in the week ending August 16, to 92.1c/kg in the week ending September 13.

Image: LMC

Image: LMC

The national weekly beef kill at export plants is still above the 30,000 mark, figures from the Department of Agriculture show, with 30,470 animals slaughter last week (week ending September 20).

However, the week-on-week kill is back by approximately 400 head. There has also been a reduced total kill with the 2015 figure running 54,000 head behind 2014 levels.

To September 20, there has been 1.13m cattle slaughtered at export meat plants, this is down from 1.18m in 2014, the Department says.