Beef quotes have taken a major jump this week on the back of the national kill going into freefall.

Quotes have lifted 20c/kg in some cases, with factories desperate for supplies of cattle to fill weekly contracts with supermarket and manufacturing beef customers.

Bullocks have moved up to €7.20/kg to €7.30/kg, with heifers now working off a €7.30/kg to €7.50/kg base price depending on how hard-up factory agents are for cattle.

Supply is a huge issue at the moment, with a big fall-off in numbers being slaughtered.

Finished cattle are in very short supply, with cattle slow to come off grass in the south and supplies of shed cattle all dried up at this stage.

Some factory agents would even go as far as saying this week that it doesn’t really matter how much the price goes up by, the cattle simply aren’t there, so it’s a matter of trying to stay ahead of your competitor to make sure the cattle don’t go elsewhere.

Flat prices are also back on the table, with as high as €7.80/kg being paid for in-spec Aberdeen Angus cattle this week.

Breed bonuses range from 20c/kg for in-spec Hereford cattle to 30c/kg for Aberdeen Angus cattle.

Farmers have the ball at their foot and should dig in for more money this week.

Cows

The cow trade remains very steady, with factory agents very active for heavy, well-covered cows.

R grading cows are generally trading at €7.10/kg to €7.20/kg, while O grading cows are coming in around €6.80/kg to €6.90/kg.

Up to €7.50/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. Up to €6.70/kg to €6.90/kg is being paid where cows are well finished.

Bulls

Bulls are in demand, with up to €7.60/kg now available at the top end for U grading bulls, working back to €7.30/kg to €7.40/kg for O grading bulls.

A number of factory agents are actually ringing around looking for bulls for this week’s kill. Higher quotes of €7.70/kg have been paid to feeders dealing with bigger numbers.

Kill numbers

Last week’s cattle kill dropped by a massive 2,730 head, bringing the total number of cattle slaughtered to 24,227 head, the lowest kill this year.

Last week’s kill was 8,473 lower than the same week in 2024.

To put this into context, at an average carcase weight of 320kg, that’s 874 tonnes less beef processed in Irish factories last week compared with the previous week.

Last week’s kill saw just 7,125 heifers killed, a drop of almost 1,400 on the previous week. The cow kill dropped by just over 550 head to 5,879 head, while the bullock kill came back by 366 head.

The low kill is causing major challenges in processing circles about their ability to fill supermarket contracts.

Many processors have dropped their killing days to match the supplies, with some only working half days this week.

The drop in supplies isn’t expected to correct itself anytime soon, with high live exports keeping cattle numbers tight for the remainder in 2025 and into 2026.

British prices

Beef quotes across the water in Britain have also started to rise again, with increases of between 2p and 5p/kg seen in the last week.

Quotes as high as £6.40/kg (€7.91/kg incl VAT) for in-spec bullocks and heifers have been reported, with last week’s kill running about 2,000 head behind the same week in 2024.

For the 12 weeks running up to mid-June, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board is reporting a slight fall in sales of beef, down 3.6% in June on the back of increased prices in shops. Sales volumes were down 4,747 tonnes for the 12-week period.