Price query as supply tightens A sharp reduction of the number of steers being slaughtered in Ireland backs up forecasts that the beef supply will tighten, in theory weakening the claims of British producers who accuse the multiples of undermining the market with cheap imports. The latest reports from the Republic say the weekly steer kill has fallen below 15,000 head, 40% fewer than when protests against the supermarkets were at their height in March. The steer slaughter tally exaggerates the supply squeeze in Ireland. Heifer and cow numbers at the abattoirs are still fairly high and the plants are handling unusually large throughputs of young bulls. There is also a question mark over prices. The gap between Irish plants' payments for cattle and deadweight prices in Britain is much narrower than earlier in the year, when it was about 40p per kilo ­ but this is not fully reflected in the wholesale beef market. One suggestion is that processors in Ireland have bid cattle up to unrealistic values because labour shortages make them reluctant to risk losing workers permanently by putting plants on short time, as usually happens at this stage of the season. Instead, operators are absorbing margin loss in the British trade. Nevertheless, the general picture is of seasonal and cyclical influences detrimental to buyers. In the short term, cattle will be scarce as overwintered stock have been killed and the others are grazing summer pasture. Further out, numbers of finished stock will be limited by breeding herd contraction and the flood of live exports. {{MEAT }}

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