Factories reduce cattle prices

Marts: While the upward trend in cattle prices was maintained at a third of the country’s factories last week with slight increases, 11 of the remaining factories reduced prices paid for stock by up to 2c/kg — the first reversal of the upward trend year to date.

While the overall national average for R4L bullocks was unchanged at 336c/kg (120p/lb), the top price paid for R grade cows set a new record at 313c/kg (112p/lb), but the surge was not matched for O/P grades, which remained stable.

The indicators over the past 10 days that the processors had moved to stall the upward trend have been confirmed in the farmer pay sheet returns from the processors for last week’s kill showed that limited improvements were more than offset by reductions in a number of categories.