Cattle slaughter reaches its highest level in more than a year

You’d have to go back to December 2023 to find a week with a higher cattle slaughter than the most recent one. According to INAC, 54,265 head of cattle were slaughtered in the week ending January 25, an increase of 3,540 head from the previous week. This growth was driven by higher activity with steers and heifers, a consequence of the start of the production window for the European 481 quota, covering grainfed animals. For the third week in a row, slaughter surpassed the level of the same period last year, suggesting that January is likely to close with a year-over-year increase, ending five consecutive months of declines. In the first 25 days of January, 160,552 cattle were slaughtered, 4.7% more than in the same period of 2024.