Confident farmers want better prices

IT was what farmers had been hoping for, the largest weekly increase in prices at the factories for the year to date, as scarcity of young cattle forced up the quotes for the week.

Improvements of up to 4p/lb have been reported from around the country, with up to 90p/lb being paid for quality cattle under 30 months, which are now in short supply compared to market requirements.

The change over the past two weeks has also brought an improvement in prices for the older cattle at the factories. Supplies of these over 30 months cattle continue ahead of expectations, and it appears that there may be a lot of them still on farms.