The high weekly beef kills have continued into mid-March with over 37,000 head of cattle slaughtered at Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) approved factories in the week ending Sunday, March 16.

Last week's beef kill was up almost 3,700 head on the same week of 2024 and continued to buck the forecasted trend of a drop-off in cattle supplies in the first quarter of 2025.

The significant beef price hikes materialising on a weekly basis currently in the beef trade have taken most cattle farmers by surprise and the continued strong weekly supplies have taken factory procurement bosses equally by surprise.

The graph below shows how the 2025 weekly beef kill numbers have been comparing to 2024:

As the graph above indicates, the general trend this year has been one of larger weekly beef kills than the equivalent weeks in 2024.

This is despite the fact a drop of 8% had been forecast in cattle supplies for the first quarter (Q1) of 2025.

In January of this year, Bord Bia forecast the Q1 beef kill to total just over 300,000 head however almost 400,000 head of cattle have been slaughtered to date this year - 96,195 head above the projected supply.

The Irish food board forecast a 7% drop in supplies for the second quarter of this year followed by a 2% drop in Q3 and Q4 supplies amounting to a total forecasted drop in factory cattle supplies of 5% this year.

It remains to be seen how this supply forecast will materialise for the remainder of the year but all signals would suggest a major drop off in weekly factory cattle supplies to materialise at some stage this year.

The table below gives an overview of the beef kill for the week ending Sunday, March 16, versus the same week of last year and the cumulative kill to date this year versus last year:

As can be seen in the above table, the cow kill to date this year has fallen while supplies in all other categories has increased with the most noticeable supply increase seen in the heifer category.