Roller Coaster Ride for UK Beef Sector

The last year has been a roller coaster experience for the UK beef sector – as it has been for the last five years.

For a considerable part of the year, UK beef was trading below the five year average, only to see a resurgence in price in the summer but without the anticipated Christmas peak in the beef market.

According to Agricultural and Horticultural Board analyst for beef and sheep meat Debbie Butcher, this year is expected to see a “similar malaise in trade” with prices drifting down.

Overall prime cattle numbers are back on last year, down by two per cent to 1.92 million head, making supplies tight, she told the AHDB Outlook 2016 conference in London.

Adult slaughter remained high last year up by three per cent on 2014 to 620,000 head, with a lot of dairy cows being slaughtered in the latter half of the year.

At the same time carcase weights were also up, with cows being slaughtered on average between 10 and 15 kg heavier - click here to read more.

Meanwhile in the US, there has been some surprise (and disappointment if you are in the feeding business) that fed cattle have failed to gain traction in the last couple of weeks.

Despite winter weather and a stronger than expected cutout, cash fed cattle prices have languished and they are now a bunch of dollars lower than the high 130s feedlots were asking for a couple of weeks ago, wrote CME analysts Steve Meyer and Len Steiner - read more.