Pre-Christmas cheer as demand for beef bolsters
While some plants continue to make an opening offer of 465c/kg base for steers this week, most of the factories are a base at 470c/kg and, in general, have to pay at least 475c/kg to get the stock.
There is more than a slice of festive Christmas cheer and a feel-good factor for the beef finishers in the trade at the factories this week.
Further tightening in supplies of finished cattle is forcing the hand of the processors to increase their prices to source sufficient to meet demand for the busiest weeks of the year in the market.
While some variations continue to influence prices being paid by the factories for prime beef animals, in general, returns to producers have improved by an average of a further 5c/kg this week.
There is strong demand at the factories for cattle this week to supply the pre-Christmas market, usually, the busiest and most lucrative of the year for the processors, and the intake is continuing to tighten.
Once again, is it proving to be the perfect combination to put enough pressure on the processors to loosen their grip on price restraint and pay more to source sufficient to fill their requirements.
While some plants continue to make an opening offer of 465c/kg base for steers this week, most of the factories are a base at 470c/kg and, in general, have to pay at least 475c/kg to get the stock.
The pattern of the trade for the heifers is following a similar line. While suppliers securing above 485c/kg are few, the trade appears to be edging in that direction, with a base of 480c/kg being the general run for the early days of this week.
The premium for young bulls over the steer price has tightened to 5c/kg and cow prices continue steady with R grade making up to 430c/kg.
Credit where credit is due, the processors, aided by the promotional work of Bord Bia, have achieved markets for a volume of Irish beef that seemed to be little more than a far-fetched dream not very long ago.
Most experienced finishers remember a short few years back when a weekly intake of 30,000 head was the dividing benchmark that swung the price pendulum. Above that, it was the processor's dream, and hitting 33,000-34,000 head/weekly intake could trigger a waiting list to get cattle killed.
Today, at a weekly throughput of more than 38,000 head, the processors are looking for more. Less than a decade ago, that would have been regarded as 'cuckoo' expectations.
The intake for last week slipped back further to 38,350 head, which included 13,619 steers, 10,583 heifers, 11,299 cows and 2,305 young bulls.
