More Beef Price Increases Based on Strong Demand and Market Returns – IFA

IFA National Livestock Chairman Angus Woods said the beef trade is driving on, with factories paying more to get cattle to meet strong Christmas demand. He said factories are paying up to €3.90 base on steers and €4.00/kg base on heifers is much more common.

Angus Woods said farmers with suitable stock should dig in hard and demand full value. He said, based on the strong UK market return and the increase in EU prices of 30c/kg from last year, further price increases are well justified. “There is more in the price based on the market return and farmers need to dig it out,” he said.

The IFA National Livestock leader said there is very strong market demand with last week’s kill hitting 39,265 head. He said to-date this year the kill is up over 80,000 head and over 30,000 bulls and heifers have been shipped to Turkey. In addition carcase weights are down an average of 6kgs equivalent to another 35,000 cattle. All of this means numbers have been processed and are gone.