Beef price tracker 2

Just ring the factory procurement lads directly I would not be a fan of ever dealing with agents as most are only cattle dealers or haulage lads and they are only ringing the procurement lads anyway but must get a cut out of your cattle from the factory which in reality your paying for also I know plenty times so called agents have promised prices that farmers never get because the factory were never paying this great price, so be wary of who you deal with

It’s the factories we are dealing with so anything is possible. I’d say even they don’t know at this stage.

In the office with work today and at the lunch table people were talking about how the restaurants were talking about pulling steak cos it was so expensive. They couldn't get their head around that fact the price charged by supermarkets/restaurants is multiples that of what the factories are paying for the raw material. The bottom line was it was farmers fault the price of beef was going up and restaurants just have to pivot. I showed this link - https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/en-IE/shop/fresh-food/fresh-meat-and-poultry/fresh-beef/beef-steaks?srsltid=AfmBOor7D5FirwFyV96baggq8_YDtoZ_UinrgcjopPhHJ4Z48FH9CuJZ - and tried explaining that what the farmer gets is ~€8/kg. And if a restaurant who would get maybe 4 steaks out of 1kg of meat can't make a profit selling each one in the region of €30 per portion, then it sure as hell isn't the farmer that's the problem.

There Is no point in a group of thick people ( farm organisations) try to explain to thick people ( someone that cannot see where resturants charge a supplement for steak that is more than the price of a steak) about what another group of thick people ( resturants owners) are doing. I keep the farm organisations well away from this.

Factories issues Is they are stuck with contract supply issues. Nord Bia got there 2025 supply figures wrong in the middle of last year by 100k+ I think.

Where are we at now. The last projection by BB around Christmas gave a supply figure of 60-80k less than last year. At present slaughter figures of prime cattle are running 20k ahead of last year. That give up on 80-100k cattle less to kill between now and November before next tranche of cattle supply comes along.

Add to that with milk prices strong cows will be scarce in the autumn. Heard a story where one factory killed sub 500kg two year old FR bullocks which were in reality not even forward stores.

It a Rhinoceros it's a matter of staying on board. Try to buy as you sell if not before. The man with cattle and the ability to buy before selling should be fairly OK.

As well finish you cattle as much as possible. 12kgs extra carcasse weight is now 100+ euro. Time to consider feeding 3kgs to finishing cattle on grass for as long as possible during the summer.

You have to let them 'cook', slow and steady wins the race with a sprint to the finish line.

So I should keep them going at 8kg and then ramp them up 2 weeks before selling them?

As perhaps a dying breed of summer grazers I will be attempting to buy bullocks circa 500kg tomorrow in the mart in order to graze the place up to mid October & there is fantastic covers ahead of them,I will be trying to side with the friesans if I can having had fair results with them previously,my highest net profit in the past years has come from a spattering of reasonably scarce to source simmental x however I fear I will be priced out of that market as 2k is the absolute ceiling.Nothing clever about summer grazing forward stores I know & this may be the last year,I have no interest in younger stock what with the tb implications.

The System is break even at best which I am fine with as I prefer to have my own stock on the place rather than let it out which I have had bad experiences with in the past or let it out for 2 cuts of silage(which would be profitable).The six has fantastic daily gains & kill out,can look a bit gangly & narrow as a tall store so therefore marginally cheaper than fancy cattle,that was then but now I imagine them very expensive relatively maybe I am wrong,I am a so called hobby farmer as they say but without the likes of me there would be no spring rush.If I experience substantial losses this year I will not be getting into cattle until prices return to value.

Are many experiencing clipping charges of late. Had one out of the blue.

Me thinks its a ploy to increase margin

they have starting to get fleshy in the last few weeks in fairness. Would you think 10kg for 6weeks would put them close to being finished. I know it is hard to tell for you 🤣🤣 but they are starting to get good flesh on the pin bones ribs are very well covered. Back is lifting on them. I would have normally sold them as store cows but wanted to go back finishing cattle so this is my first go at in my time. You would give 5kg morning and evening? Also with that kind of doing they would be gaining 1.5kg a day weight gain would I be about right.

Normally once you get cover on any of that sort of lesser stock it doesn't pay to feed on.

But cows worth 7+/kg now so rules changed.

The rise last week alone was worth more than was made on feeding cattle for full winter many years.

The toys already out and just looking to get a bit of info from others to see what's happening elsewhere

I thought that was done away with at this stage. Havent been charged for clipping anything in 3 or 4 years

On to grid?

Clean like the rest of them. Pushed them to provide the animal number as said I had a pic of animals pre loading. Will be interesting to see the reply that comes back.

I thought the same aswell.