Weekly beef kill drops below 30,000 head as throughput falls by 10%

The weekly beef kill has dropped below 30,000 head for the first time this year, recent figures from the Department of Agriculture’s beef kill data show.

During the week ending March 20, the number of cattle slaughtered at Department approved beef plants dropped to 28,482 head, which is 3,245 head lower than the previous week.

This is a total drop of 10% on the week ending March 13.

Prime cattle throughput levels also declined last week, compared to the week earlier with the collective steer, heifer and young bull kill falling by 7% (-1,734 head).

When looked at on an individual basis, the week-on-week heifer kill fell by 9%, the steer kill is back by 7% and the young bull kill is down 3%, between the weeks ending March 13 and March 20.

Figures from the Department of Agriculture show that cow and aged bull slaughterings also declined last week on the week before.

The number of aged bulls slaughtered over the past two weeks has dropped by 41% (-343 head), while number of cows slaughtered fell by just over 1,000 head.

But, despite the week-on-week kill falling last week, it must be noted that due to St Patrick’s day a number of beef processors did not slaughter cattle on Thursday.

However, the week-on-week beef kill has declined over the past number of weeks, according to Department figures. Making this week’s 10% fall the fourth consecutive fall in throughput.

Previously, Bord Bia predicted that the number of beef cattle would tighten in the first half of the year, before an 50,000-80,000 beef cattle come on stream in the second half of this year.

Week-on-week beef kill change:

Young bull: -3% (-123 head)
Bull: -41% (-864 head)
Steer: -7% (-757 head)
Cow: -17% (-1038 head)
Heifer: -9% (-854 head)
Total: -10% (-3,245 head)

Cumulative beef kill

The week-on-week beef kill may be falling but the total number of cattle killed to March 20 is running ahead of last years levels.

The Department’s data shows that the cumulative number of cattle slaughter this year is about 16,000 head higher than the same time last year.

The majority of this increase comes from a jump in the young bull (+14,334 head) and steer (+4,948 head) kill.

However, despite the overall cumulative increase, the number of heifers, cows and aged bulls slaughtered up to March 20 had dropped on last year’s levels.

The heifer kill declined by 1,867 head, aged bull throughput is back by 1,177 head, while the cumulative throughput of cows fell by 4,174 head.