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GB cattle prices remain at historic highs in August
Friday, 9 September 2022
GB deadweight cattle and cull cow prices continued to trend lower in August but saw a bit more stability than in July. Prices remain supported amongst a background of strong global demand and tight supplies.
For the 4-weeks ending 3 September prices for all prime cattle averaged 433.9p/kg, down 4.2p compared to the previous 4-week average. After a drop of 2.2p at the beginning of the period, prices remained steady around 433p/kg before rising again in the final week to 436p/kg.
Despite this dip month on month, prices still remain at historically high levels. Prime cattle prices remained 24 to 25p above last year’s prices throughout the 4-week period, which at the time were the highest prices since recording began in 2014.
This overall pattern was reflected in all price categories. Young bulls lost the most month on month dropping 6.5p compared to the previous 4-week average, to average 425.5p/kg. Heifers and steers eased by 4.3p and 4.0p to average 434.2p/kg and 435.2p/kg respectively.
Estimated slaughter throughputs followed seasonal trends in the 4-weeks ending 3 September. Like prices, numbers remained steady for the first 3 weeks at around 30,000 head before easing in the final week to 27,800. Prime cattle slaughter totalled 118,400 head over the 4-week period, down 6.7% (8,500 head) compared to the previous 4-week period. Although prime cattle throughput was up 1.6% (1,900 head) year on year for the 4-week period, year to date (1 Jan – 3 Sep) numbers are down 3.0%, just shy of 1.1 million head. This is 3.8% (43,700 head) behind the 5-year average for this time of year.
Cull cow prices trended down faster than prime cattle prices through August. In the 4-week period ending 3 September, prices averaged 346.3p/kg, down 9.7p from the average of the previous 4 weeks. Unlike prime cattle, cull cow prices fell for the first 3 weeks before stabilising in the final week. Despite this easing, cull cow prices remain 54.1p above where they stood this time last year and remain at record highs.
Estimated cull cow slaughter totalled 40,200 head for the period, up 2.3% (900 head) compared to the previous 4-week total of 39,300 head. Compared to last year, this is an increase of 1.2% (500 head). Year to date (1 Jan – 3 Sep) cull cow slaughter is in line with numbers from 2021 at 347,700 head. However, as was the case with prime cattle, this is 3.9% (14,000 head) lower than the 5-year average.
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