The cattle slaughter pace remains very intense

Cattle slaughter remains very high. In the week ending February 8, 54,385 head were processed, a 2% increase week-on-week and 4% year-on-year. Over the past three weeks, during peak production for the EU Quota 481, an average of 54 thousand head per week have been slaughtered.

This brisk pace persists despite several plants having not yet slaughtered cattle this year. Those include BPU, Minerva (where negotiations are underway between the company and workers which, if successful, would restart operations in March), Schneck, Somicar, Frigocerro, and Frigorífico Florida, joining Lorsinal, Rosario, and Mercades, which have been idle for over a year.

The category with the highest week-on-week increase was heifers, up 15% to 7,092 head. Cows were up 3% to 18,150, while steers declined by 2% from the previous week’s peak to 28,410.

The most active plants were Las Piedras (5,766), Marfrig-Tacuarembó (5,444), and Minerva-Pulsa (4,858). Across its four plants, Marfrig processed 14,439 head, Minerva 13,151, and the Urgal family 9,034.

So far in February, cattle slaughter is 2.5% higher than in the same period of 2024.

Sheep slaughter, however, plummeted. In the week ending February 8, only 7,546 sheep were processed, a 63% drop from the previous week and the lowest figure since the last week of June 2023.

Similar numbers of lambs (3,357 head) and ewes (3,528) were slaughtered.

The most active plants were Las Piedras (3,121), San Jacinto (1,995), and Frigocerro (1,757).