LMC advises distribution of cattle quotes will cease

The Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) is advising producers of a forthcoming change to the cattle quotes/prices communications they receive from the Market Intelligence team. From week commencing 2 February 2026, LMC will no longer gather nor distribute deadweight quotes for cattle. Rather, stakeholders will receive an update on trade with an average deadweight cattle price per category every Wednesday.

The move comes following extensive consultation with industry stakeholders and proactive engagement with producers who utilise the service. Commenting Jacqueline Liddicoat, LMC Head of Market Intelligence said, “Producers will be aware that for some time there has been a discrepancy between quotes received from processors and published average prices.  LMC wishes to provide producers with accurate, timely and useful data and in a bid to do so a decision has been made to remove distribution of cattle quotes and bring forward our weekly publication of paid prices. This move will ensure that producers receive the most up-to-date data available.”

Prior to reaching this decision engagement with users indicated that the majority of producers (over 75%) who receive the LMC quotes text used this to monitor trade. However, having assessed the value of the deadweight cattle quotes service to industry, it was decided that this service was no longer the most effective method of informing stakeholders of the direction of trade. Jacqueline added, “To enable producers to access timely data LMC will continue to provide cattle prices via text, answerphone message, website and by email. From February prices will be published weekly on a Wednesday afternoon. This moves the first sight of data for producers to earlier each week and provides an improved delivery to stakeholders. The deadweight prices published by LMC on a Wednesday will relate to processor data for the previous week. Weekly paid prices for non-premium cattle will be published via the Weekly Market Update on Wednesday. This will replace the Friday prices text.”

Concluding Colin Smith, LMC Chief Executive explained, “Our Market Intelligence team aims to provide information that supports producers and processors in their decision-making. Following robust consultation, we believe now is the right time to move away from reporting cattle quotes and instead provide timely deadweight cattle prices, offering a more accurate reflection of market trade.”

The LMC move to cease publication of cattle quotes will not impact current provision for quotes for sheep. Colin noted, “LMC will continue to request sheep quotes from relevant plants at this time. Each Wednesday we will publish the R3 sheep base quote and liveweight sheep prices from NI marts. These data will be shared by text, online and in the farming press, alongside the latest average deadweight cattle price by category.”