EU slaughter cattle market: Price increases for female animals

Published May 5, 2024

Tridge summary

The article provides an overview of the pricing trends for young bulls, cows, and heifers in the EU's R3 and O3 trade classes, highlighting variations in pricing across different countries. It notes that female animals, especially heifers, commanded higher prices, with Romania and Slovakia offering the highest premiums for young bulls. Conversely, France, Austria, and Spain saw lower prices for these animals. Cows were more expensive in most reporting countries, with significant price hikes in Austria and Portugal, while Slovakia and Finland experienced major discounts. Heifer prices also increased, reaching a new annual high in the EU, with notable increases in countries like Romania, Spain, Croatia, and the Czech Republic.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

Female animals in particular were in short supply and therefore usually achieved higher prices when sold. According to the Brussels Commission, the EU average price for young bulls in the R3 trade class remained stable at the previous week's level in the week ending April 28 at EUR 502.26 per 100 kilograms of slaughter weight. In Romania and Slovakia, however, high premiums of 5.7% and 2.4% respectively were paid for these animals. These were significantly lower at 0.4% to 0.7% in Germany, Denmark and Portugal. In this country, the producer organizations spoke of a manageable supply of bulls, which the company Vion described as sufficient. The market in France, Austria and Spain, on the other hand, tended to be somewhat weaker with discounts of 0.6% each. Cows cheaper in only two EU countries In the reporting period, EU slaughterhouses had to dig deeper into their pockets for cows in the O3 trade class. The weighted average price paid by the reporting member states was EUR 417.84 ...

Source: Proplanta