beef price tracker

Pidae.m

cute geoge wrote: »

You would need them all to grade o+ in the factory in order to get qa and the same price from the butcher .Heard some lads getting caught with grades and price could easy slip back to €900 for that animal .

I'd second what George says

kk.man

orm0nd wrote: »

lads a bit of advise please

I have a few HEX (ex fr. cows) heifers born mar/apr 16 , nice cover of flesh but a couple are low with a bit of a belly , weighted 5 picked at random on a local weight bridge and they average 550 kg

local butcher has offered me 1130 euro on the hoof, & I deliver to an abattoir which is about 20 miles away. only issue is he'd take half now and the rest 2 weeks time, I'd have to make 2 runs anyhow

how does that sound , they are QA but I would be a bit worried about grading etc.

I would take the butchers offer...take another few euro off stoppages and charges.

Willfarman

He's treating you well. But I'd give him an elbow to round it to 1150! But don't lose deal over it. You wouldn't average it in the factory there's so many holes to fall through. Minimum weight 280 kgs for qa ands schemes. Then the grading lotto could make o- or 5 fat score of heifers like that. Quare pity there isn't more butchers...

orm0nd

Willfarman wrote: »

He's treating you well. But I'd give him an elbow to round it to 1150! But don't lose deal over it. You wouldn't average it in the factory there's so many holes to fall through. Minimum weight 280 kgs for qa ands schemes. Then the grading lotto could make o- or 5 fat score of heifers like that. Quare pity there isn't more butchers...

Haven't dealt with him before but he bought comrades of these that I sold as stores and was happy with them. He's a very straight buyer. Ran them all down the shute and handled them I asked 1150 and he bid me once. Told him I d let him know before evening think I.ll give them. Thanks for advice folks good on this thread as usual.

Cavanjack

gerryirl wrote: »

how are ye finding weight gain in sheds this year. I weighted mine Saturday. As normal mixed bag. Generally happy with the weanlings. Couple that were sick earlier on not doing much good but thats usually the way. The stores are struggling a bit but there not on as good silage as the weanlings. All are getting meal. Weanling 2kgs a day and the stores and up to 4 kgs now. Dont even think 4 kgs is enough tbh

Wouldn't worry too much about weight gain in the shed I think they'll make it up when they get out. 4kg seems like a lot to be feeding stores unless You are going to sell them out of the shed. Never feed stores here. Done it once years ago and don't think we got the same response from the grass.

Bass Reeves

Like Willfarmers I try to get the 1150. A few advantages with a butcher even selling by weight no stoppages, no worrying about grading and you have a bit more flexability in when you drop them off. At 1150 each it is about 4.15/kg.

Dickie10

let them off, good business if nothing else you might have a long term outlet for a few cattle to him every year. nice to have an aoption like that

gerryirl

Cavanjack wrote: »

Wouldn't worry too much about weight gain in the shed I think they'll make it up when they get out. 4kg seems like a lot to be feeding stores unless You are going to sell them out of the shed. Never feed stores here. Done it once years ago and don't think we got the same response from the grass.

Ya its my first year feeding stores in the shed. wanted to give them a head start because the last few years every time I had cattle ready in the early back end the price nose dived. will see how it goes they were the lighter stores and lesser quality ones left over

Weanlings have from 40-85 kgs put on since bought in after weaning an all. Its the first proper year with the scales and its an eye opener to see how far behind any lad that got sick earlier on is, there only holding there own or a bit along with it. Youd not want too many getting sick

Prices dropping again I hear this evening 3.95 I heard

Cavanjack

gerryirl wrote: »

Ya its my first year feeding stores in the shed. wanted to give them a head start because the last few years every time I had cattle ready in the early back end the price nose dived. will see how it goes they were the lighter stores and lesser quality ones left over

Weanlings have from 40-85 kgs put on since bought in after weaning an all. Its the first proper year with the scales and its an eye opener to see how far behind any lad that got sick earlier on is, there only holding there own or a bit along with it. Youd not want too many getting sick

Prices dropping again I hear this evening 3.95 I heard

Yeah the scales is some job. Even for dosing, it's unreal the weight difference in the same batch of cattle. Your weanlings are doing well so. Will You cut the meal out a few weeks before they get out?

Robson99

gerryirl wrote: »

Prices dropping again I hear this evening 3.95 I heard

Seems to be the case and talk of more next week. Time for the farmers to dig the heels in

darragh_haven

I have 10 to go tomorrow. My dad is dealing with the agent/hauler as I'm up the country with the day job. But we were hoping to get €4/kg he confirmed it this morning. But a cut to €3.95 for anything after that.
I'll have nothing else to go until the end of February then, and hopefully there might be a price jump by then.

The 2 different factory we deal with are only killing 3 days this week. And most likely the same next week

Bass Reeves

Robson99 wrote: »

Seems to be the case and talk of more next week. Time for the farmers to dig the heels in

Kill did not recover last wekk still at 32Kish. Moved last week got 4.05 even though the talk was only 4.00 available. Was only a single and not even full at that. Article in the FI today that chills are virtually empty and that procurement agents are asking agents to access amount of cattle being fed at present.

For winter finishing processpors are there own worse enmwey at the moment. I got kinda caught to finish these they came in very cheap ( and very light) 15 months ago and were going over 36 months this spring and I could not finish off grass had a rig as well and a LM bullock and bullock taht were age caught as well. Even though they left a few bob I will try to avoid winter finishing next year if possible.

IMO you need a base of over 4/kg before Christmas and 4.2 in the new year to amke winterfinishing worth while. With them treatening 3.9/kg at the moment you are looking at over 100 euro/head. I wonder are they trying to drop the store price to refill there sheds. At thsi time of year the small finisher, lad finishing 10-20 cattle during the winter becase these lads make up a huge amount of the kill thsi time of year.

gerryirl

Cavanjack wrote: »

Yeah the scales is some job. Even for dosing, it's unreal the weight difference in the same batch of cattle. Your weanlings are doing well so. Will You cut the meal out a few weeks before they get out?

yes for sure dont want them too soft going onto grass.Bloody meal is gone up too. The super beef Im feeding is gone up to €300 a tonne.

Yes the scales is a great job.There not cheap but as you say you'd not tell the difference in some of them unless you weighed them. I find it great when going to the mart, you know to about 20kgs what weight they are and can have a price in your head going into the box going on the trade on the day.

Willfarman

Cold snap will test the ffers. South east quoting 3.95 today I'm told but the lads in the know weren't panic selling last week and are unlikely to be taking a hit this week. Be back on 4€ for monday.. and the rag can report "a rise"..

Snowfire

Willfarman wrote: »

Cold snap will test the ffers. South east quoting 3.95 today I'm told but the lads in the know weren't panic selling last week and are unlikely to be taking a hit this week. Be back on 4€ for monday.. and the rag can report "a rise"..

Is there going to be a glut of under 24 month fr and frx bulls hitting the factory gates over the next few weeks tho, ?

blue5000

Snowfire wrote: »

Is there going to be a glut of under 24 month fr and frx bulls hitting the factory gates over the next few weeks tho, ?

I don't think so, a lot of those were castrated and will go to grass over the summer. Might be a bit more of them down south in strong dairy areas, like Cork, a good few were housed early last summer and slaughtered before xmas too. Just my 2 cents and what is happening round here anyway.

MfMan

Latest?

Jjjack77

MfMan wrote: »

Latest?

3.95 for bullocks monday

darragh_haven

Jjjack77 wrote: »

3.95 for bullocks monday

Got €4/kg on Tuesday for bullocks.

poor farmer

3.85 for o grade bulls 23 months old on Tuesday.

Hershall

MfMan wrote: »

Latest?

3.95 / 4.05 next week midlands

Hard Knocks

Have 2 CH cows both 700kg, 1 well fleshed & the other good but not as good
What they worth?

locha

Got 4.00 base for a load of steers yesterday.

kk.man

A friend of mine had a load of Hereford steers got 3.95 base during the week.

kk.man

kk.man wrote: »

A friend of mine had a load of Hereford steers got 3.95 base during the week.

Excl bonus.

Robson99

Talk of another 5 cent cut next week. F***ERS

White Clover

Robson99 wrote: »

Talk of another 5 cent cut next week. F***ERS

Cattle must be scarce.

Wes Palmer Lee

I'm told a 10c rise is anticipated in the next fortnight...
Heres hoping.

Hershall

Wes Palmer Lee wrote: »

I'm told a 10c rise is anticipated in the next fortnight...
Heres hoping.

3.90 for bks midlands........

darragh_haven

€3.90/kg for bullocks in cork too

Willfarman

South east too.

riemann

Wes Palmer Lee wrote: »

I'm told a 10c rise is anticipated in the next fortnight...
Heres hoping.

Don't bank on it.

darragh_haven

I've been reading up a small bit on the Mercosur negotiations. I thought this deal was dead in the water a few months ago, but it seems to be back on track again now.
If there is a deal struck, it'll be the end of me beef farming. And I'm cutting some of my losses as it is in the current climate without any deal being done. Prices are just septic at the moment. €3.85/kg being offered for bullocks next week

wrangler

I'd imagine the processors are making a lot more that the headline of the IFJ

kk.man

It just shows that mass production leads to big money but small per head margins.

Something similar should be done the supermarkets. They have to have the best margin given little or no cost to stock the product plus a good credit period.

wrangler

kk.man wrote: »

It just shows that mass production leads to big money but small per head margins.

Something similar should be done the supermarkets. They have to have the best margin given little or no cost to stock the product plus a good credit period.

Unless my maths is wrong, they'd be making a loss if they increased the price by 10c/kg .

kk.man

wrangler wrote: »

kk.man wrote: »

It just shows that mass production leads to big money but small per head margins.

Something similar should be done the supermarkets. They have to have the best margin given little or no cost to stock the product plus a good credit period.

Unless my maths is wrong, they'd be making a loss if they increased the price by 10c/kg .

Your right ...amother one is if the fifth quater valued recently at 135e per head was taken off, they would really be in negitive territory.
It's only when you see steak at 9e per kg in the supermarket and little effort by them only providing self space..makes you think.

Base price

kk.man wrote: »

Your right ...amother one is if the fifth quater valued recently at 135e per head was taken off, they would really be in negitive territory.
It's only when you see steak at 9e per kg in the supermarket and little effort by them only providing self space..makes you think.

Where is this supermarket?

wrangler

kk.man wrote: »

Your right ...amother one is if the fifth quater valued recently at 135e per head was taken off, they would really be in negitive territory.
It's only when you see steak at 9e per kg in the supermarket and little effort by them only providing self space..makes you think.

Supermarkets have us chasing our tails and not a thing we can do about it
Despite what ICSA say, the fifth quarter is built into the price per kilo,they're not getting it free.
The difference in demand for sheep skins can be +/- 20c/kg in lambs

Fireside Solicitor

I think the Journals analysis is a bit high level. He takes two published accounts and uses their public margin to estimate the 5 big boys.

In the published accounts the operating profit is AFTER all sorts of accounting gimmicks like Directors costs, management charges and tax management recharges (profit shifting), the only element of these you can see are Directors costs from the published accounts, the rest can be legitimately buried in the various cost lines in the accounts. Do you honestly think these two companies would release true margins - no different to 99% of other large private companies they try to suppress profit disclosure for various reasons.

The point they make about interest costs is interesting. Meat processing companies have phenomenal cash flow so they tend to borrow a lot of debt and use that debt to ultimately pay their shareholders lots of €. The beaut is that the interest cost is fully tax deductible. You don’t think Larry G has hired an army of big guns from KPMG for the good of his health?

wrangler

Fireside Solicitor wrote: »

I think the Journals analysis is a bit high level. He takes two published accounts and uses their public margin to estimate the 5 big boys.

In the published accounts the operating profit is AFTER all sorts of accounting gimmicks like Directors costs, management charges and tax management recharges (profit shifting), the only element of these you can see are Directors costs from the published accounts, the rest can be legitimately buried in the various cost lines in the accounts. Do you honestly think these two companies would release true margins - no different to 99% of other large private companies they try to suppress profit disclosure for various reasons.

The point they make about interest costs is interesting. Meat processing companies have phenomenal cash flow so they tend to borrow a lot of debt and use that debt to ultimately pay their shareholders lots of €. The beaut is that the interest cost is fully tax deductible. You don’t think Larry G has hired an army of big guns from KPMG for the good of his health?

No different than any business so,
As the powers that be are wasting our tax money, it's our duty to save them from themselves and stick it in our back pocket as much as possible.
Fair dues to anyne that does it if it's as easy as you make out

blue5000

Anybody got quotes for next week?

patsy_mccabe

So €32 per head is the factory operating profit per head. Come on. No way is it that tight.

Bass Reeves

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

So €32 per head is the factory operating profit per head. Come on. No way is it that tight.

Read the article cost of processing is 321/head seems a bit high. 1.75 million cattle slaughtered. Average price/kg to farmers was 3.53, this would have been across cows, bulls and prime cattle. Take vat off it give an average price 3.35/kg 🀀. It a lazy journalism article but again it is in the FJ so what do you expect. No analysis. If the margin was that tight there would be wholesale processors going out of business.

Only way margin could be that tight us if retailers were giving a guaranteed margin over costs with retailers controlling demand

Willfarman

It is indeed lazy journalism that certainly will draw no criticism from meat industry Ireland.

wrangler

Willfarman wrote: »

It is indeed lazy journalism that certainly will draw no criticism from meat industry Ireland.

i can't see that it's anyones business, no more than the profit monitor, plenty on here in companies and their profit can be checked out.....how many would be bothered doing that.....and why

kk.man

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

So €32 per head is the factory operating profit per head. Come on. No way is it that tight.

The big three probably have a margin closer to 50e but an independent processeor is on very tight return. If any of the big three look for product off him they really push his margin to the cost of production.
Yes all big plants rarely use cash flow to keep the thing floating. They have big o d as it makes financial sense.
I wouldn't be surprised if retailers were dictating the price. Just look at supermarkets adds for 30% off meat. A week later cattle prices are pulled. I have observed this happen for a few years now.

wrangler

kk.man wrote: »

The big three probably have a margin closer to 50e but an independent processeor is on very tight return. If any of the big three look for product off him they really push his margin to the cost of production.
Yes all big plants rarely use cash flow to keep the thing floating. They have big o d as it makes financial sense.
I wouldn't be surprised if retailers were dictating the price. Just look at supermarkets adds for 30% off meat. A week later cattle prices are pulled. I have observed this happen for a few years now.

It's common knowledge that the processors are screwed down on price if there's promotion coming up, particularily noticed in the lambs, promotions seem to accelerate the drop in price rather than the expected affect

patsy_mccabe

Anyone here have their head around how the beef factories interact with the large retailers and other large outlets. Would there be fixed price contracts over a few months? This is how I imagine it to be and then the factories up/down prices to farmers to control the flow of cattle arriving at it's gates. After all beef is sold 365 days to the public with almost constant demand .

blue5000

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Anyone here have their head around how the beef factories interact with the large retailers and other large outlets. Would there be fixed price contractracts over a few months? This is how I imagine it to be and then the factories up/down prices to farmers to control the flow of cattle arriving at it's gates. Afterall beef is sold 365 days to the public with almost constant demand .

I don't think there is constant demand, I'd say it's very seasonal with peaks and troughs like every other market. Think about school holidays for example, when they start I reckon there is a % drop for catering beef, likewise a lift after the holidays. Christmas party season compared to January, and while we're on about religious festivals look at Ramadan and everybody swinging to lamb at Easter.

Then if we have a good summer, and England in the world cup, lots of barbies will be lit with a corresponding lift in steak and burger demand.

I think it's more a question of an almost constant weekly supply with a fluctuating demand.