Northern Ireland bull slaughterings rocket

I’m not usually one to study slaughter statistics in too much detail, but the most recent set to land on my desk caught my eye and got my mind wondering what the impact could be on the bull trade.

According to the latest Livestock and Meat Commission Northern Ireland figures, mature bull slaughterings in the province jumped by 232% in the first quarter of the year, with Northern Irish producers sending a total of 2182 mature bulls to the abattoirs, compared with 658 in the same time span last year. It has to be assumed that a large proportion of these bulls were stock bulls which farmers decided they no longer needed, or which needed replacing.

And, with cow slaughterings only up be 3%, it would seem that this isn’t the result of herd dispersals, unless of course they are all spring calving herds which will send their cows away come weaning later in the year.

The optimist in me believes this won’t be the case and that this is actually a sign that farmers over the water either already have or soon will be investing in new stock bulls which only bodes well for the bull trade both there and here. Either that or a large number of Northern Irish herds are shifting to AI. 

Other stats from the same set of figures show that steer slaughterings were up by 1%, while the number of heifers being killed fell by 3% and young bulls sent for slaughter rose by 56%. Overall cattle numbers processed in the first three months of the year rose by 7% in Northern Ireland.