Findings from the most recent EU beef dashboard show that Irish beef calves between eight days and four weeks are worth €68/head less than the average EU price.
The beef dashboard for week July 31 to August 6, showed that a male beef calf was €259.73/head in the EU market, a 6.8% increase since last year.
Prices for Irish beef calves dropped however, as the price for a beef calf was €192.04/head in week 31, the price reducing by €12.83/head since the previous week, and was an overall €68/head less than the EU price.
Prices of calves
Prices for a dairy male calf aged between eight days and four weeks had an EU market price of €134.82/head, a 9.4% increase since 2022.
Poland had the highest price for a dairy calf at €190.47/head, while Romania had the lowest at €48.93/head.
In week 31, the country with the highest market price for a beef calf aged between eight days and four weeks was Belgium, with €418.33/head, while Denmark was the lowest with €164.60/head.
Irish price was at €139.78/head for a dairy male calf, decreasing by €8.12/head since week 30.
The EU market prices in week 31 of calves slaughtered before eight months was €595.11/100kg, a 2.6% increase since 2022.
The country with the highest market price for calves slaughtered before eight months was Belgium, with €682/100kg, while the lowest was Switzerland, with €443/100kg.
Store cattle prices
In week 31, the EU market price for young store cattle was €3.11/kg, an increase of 1% since 2022.
Belgium received the highest prices at €4.65/kg, while Ireland obtained a lower amount, a total of €2.48/kg for young store cattle.
The EU market price for yearling male store cattle was €3.58/kg, a 4.4% decrease since 2022.
The price in Ireland stood at €2.18/kg in week 31, while Germany had the highest at €5.57/kg.
EU market price for yearling female store cattle was €2.87/kg, a 4.1% decrease since 2022.
Prices in Ireland were below the EU market prices in week 31 at €2.23/kg, while Belgium received the highest price that week, at €3.20/kg for yearling female store cattle.