Latest beef kill figures show that while supplies of prime cattle have tightened significantly in recent weeks, the numbers of cows available for slaughter appears to be remaining high.
Latest figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) show over 9,000 cows were slaughtered in the week ending Sunday, June 23, over 300 cows above the same week of last year.
The cow kill last week was the only major category where supplies were above the same week of last year.
The table below gives an overview of the beef kill last week compared to the same week last year and the cumulative beef kill this year compared to last year:
Animal Week ending
23-Jun-24Equivalent
Last YearCumulative
2024Cumulative
2023Young Bulls: 2,843 3,646 62,363 67,393 Bulls: 671 615 13,453 13,405 Steers: 9,996 10,885 296,255 296,318 Cows: 9,050 8,701 206,849 188,992 Heifers: 8,253 8,554 244,301 235,983 Total: 30,813 32,401 823,221 802,091
As can be seen from the table above, the cow kill remains almost 18,000 head above last year and over 200,000 head of cows have been slaughtered at DAFM-approved factories this year.
Supplies of all types cattle had been strong in the first four months of this year but have slackened off since then and are projected to slacken off further into the second half of the year.
The graph below gives an overview of how weekly supplies of cattle this year, have been comparing to supplies of cattle last year:
As can be seen from the graph above, supplies dropped off in April this year when weekly kills fell below last years’ supplies and have failed to recover since then.
The tightening in supply has seen some level of price positivity with factory quotes holding this week and rising last week which has been seen as a positive for farmers finishing cattle.
It remains to be seen if large cow kills will continue into the second half of the year however, with pressure on grass growth and concerns from some dairy farmers around stocking rates, more non performing cows could well be culled off adding further to cull cow numbers.