While the number of cattle slaughtered on a weekly basis is published on Agriland every week, at a recent farmer meeting, a farmer representative has suggested that the total beef carcass weight of the weekly kill should also be a publicised figure.
At an Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) regional meeting which took place in Cootehill, Co. Cavan, on Monday evening (September 23), the Cavan IFA chair, Maurice Brady, highlighted that factories often tell farmers that the kill numbers are way up which he acknowledged may be the case, but said: “We all know that the kgs of beef has come down substantially.”
The Cavan IFA chair highlighted that there are a lot of P grade cows included in the weekly kill figures and said: “The first thing the factory will tell you, is they’re full of cattle, but how full of beef are they?”.
Responding to the comment from the Cavan IFA chair, the senior manager of the meat and livestock team at Bord Bia, Joe Burke said:
“Certainly this year, we have seen across nearly all the categories, a significant reduction of more than 10kg of carcass weight.”
He said that the reduction in carcass weight is as a result “partly of a growing number of dairy-bred animals in the kill as opposed to suckler-bred animals” and added that “it’s also an influence of the difficult year that obviously cattle were delayed getting to grass”.
He noted that the 2024 grazing season was “a difficult year”, and that cattle were not killing out as well as had been the case previously.
The Bord Bia representative said the entity would certainly be happy to incorporate into its market commentary the fact tonnages of beef are down this year.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) publishes the average carcass weights for steers, cows, heifers, young bulls and bulls on a weekly basis.
The table below details average carcass weights for week 38 of this year (week ending Sunday, September 22) compared to week 28 of last year:
Category Avg. carcass weight
Week 38, 2024Avg. carcass weight
Week 38, 2023Young Bull 346kg 350kg Bull 471kg 466kg Steer 346kg 354kg Cow 291kg 292kg Heifer 303kg 310kg
As the table above indicates, the average steer, cow and heifer weights were back last week when compared to the same week of the previous year.
Over 38,000 cattle were slaughtered in the week ending Sunday, September 22, bringing the cumulative kill this year to just over 2.26 million (excluding veal).
The total beef kill this year is over 26,800 head above last year. Market forecasts indicate supplies of cattle tightening in the final quarter of this year.