European Union

EU beef production remains stable in 2017

Beef

The suckler cow herd has remained stable in the European Union at an aggregate level in 2017 year-on-year, most member states reporting a decrease of between 2,000 and 23,000 heads, according to the "The Short-term outlook for EU agricultural markets in 2017 and 2018".

Posted on Nov 10 ,07:02

 

The EU report says that however Poland and Spain expanded their herd by 34 000 heads each (+19% and +2% respectively). This could indicate a small geographical shift in specialized beef production systems.

Furthermore, according to the report, in the first half of 2017, net beef production in the EU was down slightly (-0.2%), owing to a small decrease in the EU-15 (-0.5%), while the EU-N13 still recorded an increase (+2%). This slowdown is attributable mainly to a decrease in cow slaughterings, but diverging trends between countries exist, varying between +/- 20,000 tons. Worth mentioning is the increase in slaughterings of heifers (+5%, in heads), mainly in France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Poland. Slaughter weights remained more or less stable for all categories.

"EU net beef production is expected to remain stable in 2017. The restructuring of the dairy sector which mainly drove the beef production increase in the last 3 years will continue. However, the first signs of a slowdown are being seen thanks to higher milk prices. This explains the production stabilization in 2017 and the forecast of a 0.5 % fall in 2018. Productivity gains in the dairy sector and the profitability of the various beef production systems are the main drivers in the medium term of declining beef production," the report read.

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