The beef trade remains under pressure this week, with factories dropping quotes by another 10c in some factories on Monday morning. <\/p>\n
Some factories are trying to buy bullocks at \u20ac6.30\/kg, but, as the official Department of Agriculture quoted figures in the Irish Farmers Journal shows, paid prices are not in line with quoted prices. <\/p>\n
The official prices reported to the Department by factories for the last seven weeks are outlined in Table 1 below. <\/p>\n
The average ABG for the week ended 19 April 2026 was 697.4c\/kg compared with the ABG for the week ending 17 May 2026, one month later, which came in at 691.9c\/kg. This represented a drop of 5.5c\/kg during that four-week period. <\/p>\n
This is in contrast with base quotes during that period falling by 20c\/kg and even up to 30c\/kg in some cases. This would indicate that while factories have been quick to drop quotes, what they are actually paying out hasn\u2019t been dropping as quickly. <\/p>\n
The other factor is that factories are currently working their way through a lot of contracted cattle from bigger finishers and these are contracted at a higher price to those of smaller finishers working off weekly quotes. <\/p>\n
What the data shows is that factories are willing to pay more than quoted prices, so farmers should bargain hard when it comes to selling. <\/p>\n
This week\u2019s base quotes range from \u20ac6.30\/kg to \u20ac6.40\/kg for bullocks, with heifers working off a base quote range of \u20ac6.40\/kg to \u20ac6.50\/kg. <\/p>\n
Cows<\/strong><\/p>\n R grading cows are being priced at \u20ac6.20\/kg, with more going to those with numbers. U grading cows are generally now being bought at \u20ac6.30\/kg to \u20ac6.40\/kg, with higher prices going to regular cow sellers and specialist feeders. <\/p>\n O grading cows are being bought for around \u20ac6.00\/kg. P+3 cows are coming in at \u20ac5.80\/kg to \u20ac5.90\/kg, with some factories quoting lower for very light cows. <\/p>\n Bulls<\/strong><\/p>\n R grading bulls are coming in at \u20ac6.50\/kg to \u20ac6.60\/kg, with U grading bulls being quoted at \u20ac6.60\/kg to \u20ac6.70\/kg. O grading bulls are working off an all-in price of \u20ac6.30\/kg to \u20ac6.50\/kg, while P grading bulls are being quoted at \u20ac6.20\/kg to \u20ac6.40\/kg, depending on weight and flesh cover. <\/p>\n Over-age bulls are generally working off a price of \u20ac6.30\/kg to \u20ac6.50\/kg, depending on grades and flesh cover. Under-16-month bulls are working off a \u20ac6.30\/kg to \u20ac6.50\/kg base price on the grid.<\/p>\n The beef trade remains under pressure this week, with factories dropping quotes by another 10c in some factories on Monday morning. <\/p>\n Some factories are trying to buy bullocks at \u20ac6.30\/kg, but, as the official Department of Agriculture quoted figures in the Irish Farmers Journal shows, paid prices are not in line with quoted prices. <\/p>\n The official prices reported to the Department by factories for the last seven weeks are outlined in Table 1 below. <\/p>\n The average ABG for the week ended 19 April 2026 was 697.4c\/kg compared with the ABG for the week ending 17 May 2026, one month later, which came in at 691.9c\/kg. This represented a drop of 5.5c\/kg during that four-week period. <\/p>\n This is in contrast with base quotes during that period falling by 20c\/kg and even up to 30c\/kg in some cases. This would indicate that while factories have been quick to drop quotes, what they are actually paying out hasn\u2019t been dropping as quickly. <\/p>\n The other factor is that factories are currently working their way through a lot of contracted cattle from bigger finishers and these are contracted at a higher price to those of smaller finishers working off weekly quotes. <\/p>\n What the data shows is that factories are willing to pay more than quoted prices, so farmers should bargain hard when it comes to selling. <\/p>\n This week\u2019s base quotes range from \u20ac6.30\/kg to \u20ac6.40\/kg for bullocks, with heifers working off a base quote range of \u20ac6.40\/kg to \u20ac6.50\/kg. <\/p>\n Cows<\/strong><\/p>\n R grading cows are being priced at \u20ac6.20\/kg, with more going to those with numbers. U grading cows are generally now being bought at \u20ac6.30\/kg to \u20ac6.40\/kg, with higher prices going to regular cow sellers and specialist feeders. <\/p>\n O grading cows are being bought for around \u20ac6.00\/kg. P+3 cows are coming in at \u20ac5.80\/kg to \u20ac5.90\/kg, with some factories quoting lower for very light cows. <\/p>\n Bulls<\/strong><\/p>\n R grading bulls are coming in at \u20ac6.50\/kg to \u20ac6.60\/kg, with U grading bulls being quoted at \u20ac6.60\/kg to \u20ac6.70\/kg. O grading bulls are working off an all-in price of \u20ac6.30\/kg to \u20ac6.50\/kg, while P grading bulls are being quoted at \u20ac6.20\/kg to \u20ac6.40\/kg, depending on weight and flesh cover. <\/p>\n Over-age bulls are generally working off a price of \u20ac6.30\/kg to \u20ac6.50\/kg, depending on grades and flesh cover. Under-16-month bulls are working off a \u20ac6.30\/kg to \u20ac6.50\/kg base price on the grid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The beef trade remains under pressure this week, with factories dropping quotes by another 10c in some factories…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[214828,1043,30654,219204,214825,61008,79,19440,18106,18,203411,179457,19,17,50106,188,5],"class_list":["post-504630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-adam-woods","tag-beef","tag-beef-prices","tag-beef-trends","tag-bullocks","tag-bulls","tag-business","tag-cattle","tag-cows","tag-eire","tag-finishers","tag-heifers","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-farmers-journal","tag-markets","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116644852950911253","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}