Beef price tracker 2

The quarry buyer likes playing the big fella spending someone else’s money and look at me I won’t be bet when bidding, how them cattle make money is hard to figure.

I heard one well-known dealer stepped in with a loan to get things moving again. Be some feat if locals raised that sum on their own.

Anyway, any price updates for the coming week?

Foyle meats pulled 10 cents

Its a stall tactic on price rises. Played a blinder with so called backing up cattle since the short week at the start of the month. There is an increased kill so far this year when numbers were predicted to be tight in the 1st and 2nd quarters. The pinch in numbers has to come soon

In the US beef price is at an all time high, so this

On our farm this last few years decent continental heifers always go more at the mart that what we would have got in the factory. Last Saturday week 10 continental heifers sent to Dowra, between 560-595 kg averaging €1800, cant see any factory paying that.

As for Friesian bullocks, Id say factory and mart would be six a one half dozen of the other.

Early last June was one of the few time I saw Friesian make more in the mart, last August/early September 20 monthe old Friesian's with flesh @490-520 kgs LW were making a tad more as well however in general they do not.

A couple of weeks ago I had a few Friesian bullocks 33-34 months old. Rang an agent had not dealt with in years. He was selling everything through the mart. He told me that these Friesian were making 2-2.1/ kg in the mart. They hung nearly 390 DW which was 790 fresh weight or about 750 mart weight. They averaged 1900 euro. I have not seen Friesian's making 2.5/ kg in the marts which is just a little less than the equivalent factory price at preset

On your heifers at 580 mart average they would be 610 fresh weight or about 335 kgs DW. 1800 is a overall factory price of 5.37/ kg. Allowing for QA and a sprinkling of R+'s it's a base of 5.15.

Last week a base of 5.35 was available. If the heifers were single movement cattle they would also have qualified for the advantage payment from ABP a scheme which you can register for.

If you’re non QA’d then you just about matched the factory price.

If you’re QA’d you’ve left €100-€150 per head behind you.

I’m assuming they’re good quality R+/U grade heifers. These would be expected to kill 56-58% of their yard weight which would translate to 58-60%+ of mart weight.

Taking the middle of your weights as average, so 575kg. Killing out at 58% would be 333kgs. At a base price of €5.30 plus €0.20 qa plus €0.06 for an R+ gives €5.56 per kg. €5.56 x 333kgs is €1,854 factory price.

Realistically the man buying them, if they’re good quality, will be working out his figures at 60% killout.

575kgs x 60% = 345kgs dead.

345 x €5.56 = €1918 for an R+

345 x €5.62 = €1939 for a U-.

Dowra doing extremely well lately, by far the best mart around my country for selling, lot of English buyers there too in the last few weeks.

You cant compare what they would have made in the Factory when they were only forward stores. Why would anyone want to kill contenintal cattle at 575 kgs ave unless they were small buts. Forward stores will never make as much in the factory as they will in the mart

Larrys grading machine defiantly burned someone there, seems like a crazy error

@893bet none of that with your heifer adds up, if she was 630 kgs the day you sold her, you would expect her to kill out a lot nearer to 360 kgs than 260 kgs. With her brother and sister both grading U then its very hard to see how she could have graded a P.

She was clearly a fairly good heifer weighing 630 kgs and making €1,830 (€2.90 / Kg) back in December

There has to be some story here somewhere, there is either an error in the entry to the system or someone was a some form of messing.

The DW at 261 kgs at 26 months suggests an very underfinished animal unless she lost weight she killed 40%. However 3- FS suggests a level of finish I would have expected to be at least an O grade.

I suspect some lad messing with tags

First thing that came to my mind too. I’d imagine there’s an old cow after being killed as a heifer somewhere and there’s a heifer in calf now that’s a lot older on paper than reality.

I would guess there was some messing like that too, but its hard to know what.

When you are straight in what you do, it can be hard to guess what lads that aren't that way inclined would be up to.