Beef price tracker 2

Any truth in the rumor that is Larry shutting the boning hall in Waterford and moving product to Slaney and Cahir ?

Or have the factories not taken on as many contracts as they did last year and don’t need as much beef now?

One local factory here are booked out for cattle for over a week ahead at all times in the last few months. They’ve often killed a lot more than they’re killing in a week at present so they have the capacity, do they just not need the beef?

I’m not disputing that the national herd is reducing but that’s irrelevant to the question I asked.

Both things can be true at the one time, the national herd can be reducing while simultaneously the factories could be taking on less beef contracts in order to not have to overpay (in their eyes) for the stock they need to fill them contracts.

What kind of madness are you talking?

Actual beef prices??...on this thread???

I’ve nothing for to kill at the moment so it’s irrelevant to me either way but surely there has to be some correlation between what they’re killing and what contracts they have.

This time last year they were killing 35k a week and prices were rising daily with factories fighting for stock. This year the kill is back to 30k a week and price is static or as good as for a few months now. Surely whatever contracts factories had last year for that extra 5k cattle per week aren’t just being ignored or their customers being told we’ll give you the beef when we have it and take it or leave it? I would imagine the factories didn’t want to get into a bidding war for stock again this year so they’ve reduced the contracts and are happy to sit at 30k per week and make a few pound at that rather than chasing around looking for more stock at a higher price to make less money on them. I’m assuming the factory managers aren’t stupid and they know the national herd is reducing, fat cattle aren’t as plentiful, rising prices won’t make any more of them available in the short term so what’s the point in fighting each other for whatever supply is there, it’s simpler to reduce throughput, only work 3 or 4 days a week which keeps running costs down and make the best profit they can from what stock are there.

Now I have zero inside information on this and it’s all just what I think in my own head is happening so I could be completely wrong but I don’t see how anything else is possible from a business perspective for the factories.

By knowing throughput numbers you are able to gauge wher⁹e we are numbers wises. Tonnage may be totally different to ten years ago but year on year its not a lot different. If kill stays around 30k until mid May ( or a bit beyond it). We are running 5k a weeks less so far, last year we were killing 36-38k a week from.this stage on. That will be 80k+ less cattle plus the 30 odd less already.

That about sums it up. Factories are not going to get caught like last year. They are buying a lot of cheap finished cattle in some of the marts around the country. Ya they get caught for a few AA the odd week or heavy Continentals but in general they are winning big time.

On holding cattle to avoid tax a builder that is farming held about 20 LMX heifers off friesians. He told me he sold them.last week they were 480ish kgs and he go 3.87/ kg, mart promised him a minimum of 3.65.

He usually would have offloaded them.in October/November. He had them an extra 100 days. He said the price back them was 4.3/ kg.. they were on a couple kgs of nuts and silage. He taught he got 150 extra and it did not cover his feeding costs