R3 price of 85p/lb maintained next week
This is believed to be the highest price of offer in the country this week - the group has confirmed.
The supply of cattle to avail of the higher price has been strong at all of the factories within the group from Bandon to Clones with the latest information confirming the factories are booked out for the week.
Cattle were slaughtered yesterday for some producers who were unable to get the cattle accepted for slaughtering at factories on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the company confirmed yesterday it has been trying to take cattle from as many of their customers as possible, but there was practically no hope of booking in any more cattle for this week He confirmed however, that the going price for this week of 85p/lb for good quality cattle under 30-months and 80p/lb for O grade will be maintained by the company at all of their factories for next week - emphasising that the higher price is for good quality R grade animals.
Bookings for next week are also expected to be heavy and the company cannot guarantee to be in a position to accept all animals offered if there is a swing of supplies away from other factories because of the higher price on offer.
“If there is a rush of cattle, we would not, of coarse, be able to accept them all, but we have a market for good under 30-months cattle which are getting scarce,” he added.
However, the official factory prices for last week, issued yesterday, confirmed the gradual downward trend
in average prices around the country
a price which was more pronounced in the bullocks than the heifers.
The average for R3 bullocks was 230 cents/kg (82.2p/lb) slightly lower than the previous week with O3 bullocks down 2 cents/kg at 222.3 cents/kg (79.4p/lb)
Within the Dawn Group of factories Midleton had a slight edge on price at 232 c/kg (83p/lb) over Ballaghadereen and Waterford by a margin of less than 1p/lb with Ballyhaunis coming in at an average of a fraction under 81p/lb.
There was very little variation between factories in the AIBP Group for R3 bullocks, with the exception of Rathkeale which continues to trail.
A number of the factories showed a slight increase for R3 grade reflecting the higher price paid towards the end of last week.
AIBP Waterford came in third highest for price on R3 bullocks and the Cahir factory was fifth from the top
(see listing above).
Poorer grading animals were back up to 5 cents/kg (2p/lb) for R4/5 grades and up to 12 cents/kg (4p/lb) less was paid on average for O4/5 animals at some of the AIBP factories.
Heifer prices at the factories were generally stronger for the quality grades.
The average for R3 was 235 cents/kg (84p/lb) and the average for O3 was 222 cents/kg (79.3p/lb).
