The beef trade remains tentatively poised this week as quotes remain at a similar pitch to where they were last week.

Factories are still on a hard line of quoting €7.10/kg for bullocks and €7.20/kg for heifers, but there is more leeway again this week in moving off the initial quote, with many factories still buying a lot of cattle at €7.20/kg base price for bullocks and €7.30/kg base price for heifers.

Finished cattle are in very short supply, with factory agents more anxious this week for cattle. The same agents trying to buy bullocks at €7.10/kg base price this week have been paying the equivalent carcase price of €8/kg in marts for live cattle.

Breed bonuses are also a little easier to come by this week, with 30c/kg back on the table in most processors for Aberdeen Angus bullocks and heifers to lure out any more dairy-beef still on farms. Haulage is also being paid to get deals across the line.

Cows

Th cow trade remains very steady, with factory agents in the market for heavy well-covered cows.

R grading cows are generally trading at €6.90/kg to €7.00/kg, while O grading cows are coming in around €6.60/kg to €6.70/kg.

Up to €7.10/kg has been paid for U grading cows this week. There is a big range in quotes for P grading cows, with those with numbers able to bargain more and up to €6.30/kg to €6.60/kg being paid where cows are well finished.

Cull stock bulls are trading from €6/kg to €6.20/kg. There’s value in marts at the moment for farmers with small numbers of cows to sell.

Bulls

Bulls have also steadied, with €7.50/kg still available at the top end for U grading bulls, working back to €7.30/kg to €7.35/kg for O grading bulls.

A few farmers killing aged bulls have also managed to get €7.40/kg flat for mixes of O, R and P grading bulls.

Higher prices are also being paid to farmers who are contract feeding bigger numbers of bulls and larger feeders without a contract have also been able to hammer out better deals.

Under-16-month bulls are working off a €7.10/kg to €7.20/kg base, with a little more going where there are numbers involved.