Number of livestock slaughtered down from 2022
More By 2022 Heads With Decreased Pared To 1 Than 2m 7% Same Between 2 January Cattle Period In 2023, The When August And Slaughterings
The number of cattle, sheep, and pig slaughterings fell in August this year compared to the same month in 2022, according to CSO figures.
Cattle slaughterings fell by 3.1% to just over 161,000 heads in August 2023 when compared with August 2022, while the number of sheep slaughtered contracted by 7% to almost 278,000 heads.
Pig slaughterings decreased by 4.2% to almost 288,000 heads.
Between January and August 2023, cattle slaughterings decreased by 2.7% to more than 1.2m heads when compared with the same period in 2022.
In the first eight months of the year, sheep slaughterings were up by 0.7% to almost 2.1m heads on the same period in 2022.
The number of pigs slaughtered was down by 9.7% to more than 2.2m heads between January and August 2023 when compared with the same eight months in 2022.
Demand for Irish beef in key markets is driving prices as supplies remain tight, the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has said.
The most recent Kantar data for supermarket sales of beef in the UK shows spend on beef to be up over 11% year-on-year, with volumes holding firm.
With tighter supplies of cattle in the UK, market prices have risen by 7p per kg in the past week.
EU young bull prices have strengthened and when combined with the UK price in the Bord Bia Prime Export Benchmark Price, a gap of 37c per kg has opened up with prices.
Despite the price increasing over the past few weeks, these increases are "not keeping pace with prices in our key markets and must move further and faster", IFA livestock chairman Brendan Golden said.
"Factories can and must do more on beef price to reflect the reality of the market conditions they are selling into," Mr Golden added.
