Further 1p/lb rise in price of cattle

In a seller’s market there is no guessing when prices have peaked, as producers secured another 1p/lb increase at the factories for scarce supplies of cattle.

One factory paid almost 104p/lb average for R3 bullocks last week and over 102p/lb was returned for O3’s as producers benefited from a general increase averaging 1p/lb for most grades of cattle, across all the factories. Heifer prices showed a corresponding increase with prices generally in line with those for the bullocks, but peaked at 0.5p/lb higher.

The bullock supply dropped to 9,000 head last week and, with keen competition for supplies, the processors faced a hard sell by producers and were forced to pay a June price, the equivalent of which they have not paid for a decade and a half.