Store trade under pressure

Marts: The store cattle trade has come under pressure in the marts, with up to 70/head being wiped off prices at the sales, which attracted smaller entries of livestock yesterday, partly due to farmers availing of the fine weather for farm work.

Following the pressure on beef prices, the trade for store cattle is also experiencing the worst week's trading in a long time as cautious buyers revised downwards the maximum they were prepared to pay for cattle.

Lower prices are being reported for all types of cattle, with up to 70/head of a reduction for plainer cattle, which have been the worst effected as poor quality Friesians dropped close to 1/kg and in a change to the regular pattern some lots went home unsold yesterday.