Grading figures showing lower fat

Marts: Young bulls fared best on improvement in conformation grading for the first quarter of the year, while grading of cows also showed improvement, in contrast to the decline in quality grades for steers and heifers.

But there has been a significant increase in the number of U and R grade bulls getting lower fat scores this year, a trend also obvious for steers and heifers.

Official returns for January-March 2005 show the ratio of U grade young bulls in the kill increased by 12%, while the ratio of young bulls getting O grade was down by 16% and there was a drop of 26% in the ratio of young bulls getting P grade, when compared to the same period in 2004.