Livestock Council Report November 2025

Market Report

• Beef Price: Steers are making from €7.50kg to €7.70/kg. Heifers are making €7.60/kg to €7.80/kg with higher deals for larger lots and increased off season breed bonuses paid. Young Bulls are ranging from €7.70kg to €7.90/kg for R/U grades. Cows are making €7.00kg to €7.70/kg.
• DAFM Reported Prices week ending 19/10//2025: R3 steer prices for the latest week increased by 11c/kg to €7.70/kg, R3 heifer prices increased by 10c/kg to €7.74/kg. R3 young bull prices increased by 11c/kg to €7.73/kg. O3 grading cows up 11c/kg to €6.15/kg, R3 grading cows are up 8c/kg to €7.41/kg.

Composite prices: The latest Irish prime composite cattle price and the prime Export Benchmark on October 11^th 2025 were equivalent to €7.22kg and €7.08/kg deadweight respectfully. 

Supply Figures as Reported by DAFM – WK 43 (26.10.2025)
Animal	Number	Change prev wk	% of total	YTD	YTD Change
Y Bulls	1249	▲0	4%	86670	▼-2,047
Bull	344	▲0	1%	20367	▼-4,182
Steer	12847	▲0	43%	515606	▼-55,064
Cow	6396	▲0	21%	291325	▼-68,119
Heifer	9037	▲0	30%	408314	▼-13,152
Veal-V	29	▲0	0%	3159	▼-17,177
Veal-Z	32	▲0	0%	1892	▲356
Total	29934	▲0	100%	1327333	▼-159,385

• Supplies:  Total throughput to date in 2025 stands at 1,327,333 head, back 159,385 head from the corresponding week in 2024. The Irish cattle kill is projected to be back 5% in 2025. 

• Market Conditions:

Cattle prices have continued to rise over the past number of weeks due to strong market demand and tightening availability of finished cattle supplies across Ireland, UK and the EU. Prices in GB for R3 steers is 6.54p/kg. R3 Heifers price is £6.53/kg for week ending October 18^th 2025. EU young bull price currently stands at €7.12c/kg.

• Live Exports: Live exports have reached historic highs in 2025 surpassing record levels in 2024 to date. Strong demand and tight supplies across Europe due to disease restrictions and price differentials have benefited the Irish trade to date. A total of 226,112 cattle has been exported to date, which is up 5,089 or 2% from the same period in 2024. 40,539 head have been exported to Northern Ireland, 274,179 to mainland Europe and 11,394 to third countries. The outlook for 2025 remains strong for live exports.

Activity since last National Council

1. Budget 2026
2. IFA have secured 28m for the continuation of a National suckler scheme in budget 2026.
3. The scheme payment rates will be €75/cow maintaining total payments of €225/cow when including the suckler carbon efficiency programme for 2026.
4. IFA have secured the continuation of a dairy beef calf scheme for 2026 worth €4m.
5. IFA will be engaging with the DAFM in October on both schemes to ensure the schemes are practical to implement and avoid unnecessary leakage of monies or admin bureaucracy for farmers.

2.  Review of Bord Bia Origin Green Producer Standard

• IFA continues to engage with Bord Bia on the Origin Green Producer Standard review.
• Committee members are currently conducting pilot audits on their farms and will provide feedback on the new process when they conclude.
• The substantive issue in this process for IFA is to have a simplified-on farm audit process.
• IFA’s position is clear – Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.

3.  Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme

• A funding allocation of €52m was provided for the SCEP scheme in 2023 with a payment of €150 per suckler cow available on the first 22 cows and €120/cow on the remainder.
• 16,450 farmers are currently participating in the scheme with an average reference number of 25 cows. There are currently 441,346 cows eligible for payment.
• Payments for the scheme will be made in December 2025.

4.  National Beef Welfare scheme 2025

• IFA secured an additional €8m towards the National Beef Welfare Scheme for 2025, bringing the total budget to €28m for the national exchequer suckler cow scheme.
• This increase of €8m provides for payments of €75/suckler cow and when combined with the suckler carbon efficiency programme brings returns of up to €225/suckler cow for 2025.
• IFA raised concerns on the proposed maximum number of eligible animals per farm. IFA has sought the removal of the upper limit on numbers of animals eligible within a herd. 
• The maximum payable number of cows in this scheme is 45, up from 40 in last year’s scheme
• The scheme actions include; 
• Action 1 – Meal Feeding: €35 per eligible calf up to a maximum of 45 eligible calves. 
• Action 2 – Vaccination:€15 per eligible calf up to a maximum of 45 eligible calves.
• Action 3 – Faecal egg testing and 3 silage samples or 2 faecal egg tests.
• The scheme closed for application in September 2025.
• 100% payments will be made in December 2025.

5. Dairy calf beef scheme 2025

• IFA secured €4m in funding for a new dairy calf beef scheme for 2025.
• The scheme will pay farmers €20/calf up to a maximum 50 calves.
• 100% payments will issue to participants in December 2025.
• The scheme will only consist of one action, which will involve weighing the calf and uploading the weights to ICBF by November 1^st 2025.
• IFA raised concerns on the maximum number of 50 eligible calves which should be reviewed. Some farmers specialising in rearing dairy beef calves have made significant investments to rear large numbers of calves. All farmers rearing dairy beef calves should be eligible for the full support payment on all the calves they rear.

6. Changes to ICBF Indices

• IFA secured significant flexibilities to SCEP requirements related to the indices, ensuring no farmers are negatively impacted by the changes in November.
• The lower weights issue in the indices has also been addressed, with the minimum weight set at 520kgs at 200 days after calving, which equates to a mature cow weight of 570kgs. This will now be incorporated into the indices.
• Work is progressing on the development of an index that reflects weanling production systems.
• Discussions are on-going on the inclusion of carbon in the index.
• IFA will continue to engage with ICBF with the objective of delivering an index that has the trust and confidence of suckler farmers and pedigree breeders.

7. Mercosur

• IFA has secured a commitment from the main Irish Political Party leaders at IFA events in the run up to the General Election to object to any Trade Deal with Mercosur, regardless of the form in which it comes.
• IFA has met with the Cabinet of Trade Commissioner Dombrovskis to outline concerns on the economic impact of a potential Mercosur deal on Irish farmers.
• IFA has met the Tánaiste Simon Harris jointly with MII to again highlight the impact of this deal on Irish suckler and beef farmers and the need for this deal to be rejected.
• IFA will continue to engage with Irish MEPs to secure a commitment to object to any trade agreement which will undermine the livelihood of Irish livestock farmers.
• IFA is meeting regularly in Brussels with farming organisation representatives from France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Italy, and Romania to exert pressure on other Member State governments to stand in unity with European Farmers in objection to any potential Trade Deal.
• Outline of Mercosur Trade Deal for beef:

99,000 tonnes of beef at 7.5% duty. In addition, all duties will be immediately removed from the 67,250 tonne Hilton beef quota already available to Mercosur countries currently at a 20% duty rate. 

• Economic Impact of Mercosur trade on Irish agriculture:
• The above quotas will most likely be filled only by high-value cuts/products which have the potential to significantly damage the Irish beef sector.
• The deal will lead to tariff reductions for the Mercosur countries in the region of €400m per annum.
• The reduction in EU beef market output will be approximately €1.3bn, with a representative hit of €100-€130m to the Irish beef sector. This is equivalent to €75-€95 per head across our prime cattle kill. 
• It is frequently claimed that the new 99,000 tonnes quota represents only 1.5% of the EU beef market. This statistic is disingenuous, if the Mercosur countries target the high value steak market, it is equivalent to bringing an additional 4m cattle onto the EU market.

7. EUDR (EU Deforestation Regulation) 

• IFA has been engaging with the relevant bodies and has strongly pushed for changes to simplify the regulation for farmers.
• IFA has sought a simplified requirement at EU level for effectively non risk countries.
• The EU Commission has come forward with amended proposed targeted adjustments to the regulation to ensure a smooth implementation of the EU Deforestation regulation aiming to make its IT system fully operational while simplifying obligations for small operators. 
• The proposals aim to reduce reporting requirements by limiting due diligence submissions to the first market entry point meaning traders and manufacturers will no longer need to file separate statements. 
• Micro and small operators from low-risk countries would only need to make a simple one-off declaration, further easing the burden.
• To support this transition, the Commission proposes new application dates—30^th December 2025 for large and medium companies and 30^th December 2026 for micro and small enterprises.

EU/COPA Developments

• IFA attended the COPA working party meeting on Breeding Livestock in October.
• IFA attended the Meat Market Observatory meeting in October.
• IFA attended the COPA working party meeting on Beef and Veal in October.
• IFA Livestock Chair Declan Hanrahan was elected Vice-Chair of the COPA working party on beef.

Upcoming Issues

• Mercosur
• CAP MFF
• Charter
• Bord Bia Origin Green Producer Standard review. 
• €300 Suckler cow payment, €100 rearing and finishing payment and €100 calf rearing scheme. 
• On-going contact with DAFM regarding suckler schemes. 
• Continued engagement with ICBF.
• On-going contact with Bord Bia. 
• On-going contact with MII.