December 13, 2022

 

Supply of cattle to meat plants in Ireland expected to drop 2% in 2023

Bord Bia, the Irish state agency food board, expects cattle supply to meat plants in the country to decline by 2% in 2023, Irish Examiner reported.

 

Joe Burke, Bord Bia meat and livestock senior manager, said that there have been very strong supplies for the year to date, with total supplies of cattle to meat plants running at 1.67 million, and likely to reach just over 1.8 million for the year as a whole.

 

Year to date, there has been an increase of approximately 8%, or approximately 120,000 head.

 

Burke said over 51,000 more cull cows have been slaughtered this year compared to last year, with the majority of those extra cull cows coming from the dairy herd rather than the suckler herd.

 

He said it has been significant, as much of that increase occurred in the first three/four months of the year, and they have seen very strong numbers of cull cows again in the last month.

 

As a result of the inflationary environment that farmers are operating in, and due to higher feed, fertiliser, and other costs; farmers are being a bit more stringent in their culling of less productive cows, as well as possibly letting them go a little faster as well, rather than keeping them on for a period of further finishing, he said.

 

This is also demonstrated by the average carcass weights, as Burke said they have seen a reduction of more than 2% in average carcass weight across the board on average, and within the cull cow category, there has been a reduction of 14kg of carcass weight, which is quite significant.

 

He said because the dairy herd now accounts for more than 60% of cattle slaughters, the average carcass weight is being diluted to some extent."

 

Burke said the likely supply outlook for the coming year is a reduction of 30,000 to 40,000 cattle. Based on the number of prime cattle that they see coming through the system within the Department of Agriculture's Animal Identification and Movement [AIM] database, they expect 30,000 to 40,000 fewer steers, heifers, and young bulls available for next year because live exports, in particular, have been recovering for the last couple of years.

 

According to Burke, more animals have been exported live this year than in previous years.

 

He said Ireland exported nearly 270,000 live cattle this year, of which 170,000 have been calves, so total live exports are up 14%, and calf exports are up 21%, adding that it has been more than ten years since the country last shipped these numbers of animals, despite the fact that the number of animals going to Northern Ireland has decreased significantly this year in comparison to last year.

 

-      Irish Examiner