Dawn pays top price for heifers

Marts: Dawn Meats paid a top price of almost 95p/lb for heifers at their plant at Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, last week, according to official factory pay sheet prices released yesterday.

The factory average paid for R3 grade heifers of 264 cents/kg - equivalent to 94.5p/lb - at the western processing plant was an increase of 6.5p/lb on the average paid for the same grade and category at the plant for the previous week, and a clear leader on price for R grade heifers across the country last week. It was less than 1 cent/kg under the highest overall price for under-age heifers last week, which was paid for U3 grade at Kepak, Clonee.

Two other factories within the Dawn Group, Meadow Meats, Rathdowney and Dawn Meats at Waterford were in third and fifth places overall on average price for R3 heifers for the week. Meadow Meats paid an average of 92.2p/lb and Dawn, Waterford paid an average of 90.2p/lb against an overall average of 88p/lb for the category which was slightly lower than the previous week.