Beef price tracker 2

Production should not be directly supported. I have for instance supported convergence which supports those on poorer type land. I consider schemes like REPS/ACRES etc are designed towards supporting them as well. However I think direct support which encourages production is harmful to farmers and supports processors as well. I even think supports should be targets to help traditional breeds.

At present and for the last couple of years the penalizing of Continental type cattle for weigh has stopped. If many more are bred these problems may arise again

I thank god for the hard working suckler man busting his hole to produce the quality weanling that I can bring to a finish...

Long may they continue... I wouldnt begrudge them any support whatsoever...

I was onto Larrys Men this morning...looking to move a couple of loads of heavy cows....6.80 for O grade...7 maybe 7.10 for good Rs...

I said i will hold off for a few more weeks...he said bullocks are 7.50...heifers 7.60...they are only killing 4 days a week now....

Killed cow's last week. 6.90 for ps and Os. Dawn were 6.60 and 6.70. Abp were booked a week ahead was told

Isn't the base €7.60 you're not gaining much after the QA and breed bonus is added.

Unless they're all O's

All O+ or O= I would say

Milk once per day and they will flesh up ,whats the point letting someone else have profit in them if they are not fit for slaughter. Straight from parlour is a fools game unless it is a cow that had no calf with 10-12 months.

They warm up quick especially getting a dust of ration

And young light heifers seldom make there value. Saw one yesterday 370 kgs only making 750, in the same mart a SIX heifer 420 no calf only made 1220 The trick in any game is maximise the value.

I would still let them be for another while ,you could never have them too fat for the factory,there paying for themselves every day in the tank and beef prices look stable for the foreseeable ,Why would go off and pay mad money for calves instead that wont come into money for a very long time,

No. Dried off last December. Silage for winter and grass with 5 weeks

Don't know anything about Enniscorthy, but I see on Mart bids, in Nenagh, an AAX bullock, weighting 605 KG, sold for 2,750e. I make that a price of 8.74e needed in the Factory to match! And thats at a killout of 52%?

And yet again this week, 8e flat is the best I hear for AAX bullocks in the factories.

I was always a Factory person, as it suits me much better with my full time office job. But, if this is the situation in a month's time, when my fully grass finished cattle start to come fit, I'll have to seriously consider chancing one of the local marts.

A few questions is there water available to finishing cattle in the pens in Nenagh. How far did the bullock travel. Was there other AA bullocks/heifers and how did they do. was he an O or R grade. what way dose the scales weigh in Nenagh.

I am calculating that he made from 8.4 to 8.6/kg depending whether he was an O or R grade, no water in the finishing pens could drop him another 10-15c/kg

The least that bullock will lose between farm and mart is 20 kgs and that is if he is loaded within an hour of leaving the field or straight out of a shed he was finishing in and goes up to the ring within an hour to an hour and a half.

If there is no water in the pen when he goes in its another 15 kgs lighter. An O+ AA bullock will killout 51% or a tad better if FS3+ or better an R grade will kill 52% ish both off farmyard weight.

If you send cattle to the mart weight them before they leave the farm and compare returns to factory returns. There can be a significant difference between farmyard and mart weight. And there is several factors at play. He made 4.5/ kg off Mart weight, aa I posted a bit back you need 4.3/ 4.4 for it to pay you to go to the mart at a factory flat price of 8/kg when you factor everything into account.

Yes he made more however I would have liked to see a video of him which is not available on Martsbids.