The game has changed – the big comeback is coming. Reports from markets across the country last week indicated a sharp increase in activity at cow culling factories.
Some sources reported that the demand from factories to produce beef caused their representatives, either ringside or online, to add €100-200/hr to their previous peak prices.
Patsy Smith of Dowra Mart quoted me on high steer prices over the weekend when he noted the sheet before him was from his sale of cull cows – both sets of numbers included animals at €3.00/kg.
He added that factory agents have started buying oxen for slaughter again, weighing as little as 480-500 kg.
This is all just background, but things are improving quickly for those who supply factories directly.
The question of what is officially quoted and what is actually paid for is always a gray area, especially when the numbers are falling.
The overall quoting streak over the past week has risen by at least 5 cents/kg and in places 10 cents/kg as lazy payers have been forced to seriously up their game. This gave a range of €4.60-4.70/kg for steers, most at €4.65/kg, but this could improve at lightning speed, while heifers were between €4.70-4.75/kg.
For those with contracts you can add 15-20c/kg.
Flat rate pricing also made a comeback with reports of Angus steers being bought for €5.05/kg; Take away the 20ct/kg quality assurance and 15-20ct/kg Angus bonus and you end up with a base of €4.65-4.70/kg.
I have also been told that flat rate prices for Friesians have reached €4.50/kg, which means that the base price charged by the factory for the O and P varieties is at least 15 cents/kg higher.
For those who mostly have P classes, the offers include a minimum price of €4.40/kg.
Joe Clune from Sixmilebridge Market has advice for the fatteners: “If the fatteners get an extra 40-50 c/kg in the factories, the feed traders will decide that we benefit, thank you very much. The guys have to keep that in mind going forward.”
He also noted that the number of farmers fattening “those handy 15-30” steers over the winter months has dropped drastically in recent years.
“The factories are suffering because of this,” he said. “You miss those guys who come with the jeep and the trailer with maybe three or four in it.
“They were a lot easier to manage. Get five of these every day for a week and you might have 100 cattle.”
“It makes it easier for the factory to pay what the guy with the 100 oxen wants.”
Bord Bia predicts that the total number of homicides in export factories will reach 1.81 million by 2022.
“However, early indications for 2023 are that we will see a reduction in cattle availability in 2023, with a projected kill of 1.78 million.”
They add: “The EU beef herd is expected to decline further over the next year, with a modest recovery in beef production expected in the UK.”
On the downside, Bord Bia notes that “groceries have been the second biggest driver of inflation after energy and European retailers have acted in recent months to increasingly focus on value to retain market share.”
https://www.independent.ie/business/farming/beef/beef-prices/the-comeback-has-started-as-quotes-rise-by-up-to-10ckg-42162651.html The comeback has begun as prices rise by as much as 10c/kg
