Cow trade survives prime beef slump

HOPES of getting slightly bigger cheques from the beef factories emerged for cattle farmers this week, as the trade stabilised after its recent downward slide.

But prices have a long way to go to restore confidence in winter finishing, and eliminate the losses suffered on the back of costly stores purchased last autumn, and an expensive winter period with high feed costs.

The processors’ quoted prices were largely unchanged when they resumed slaughtering on Tuesday after the holiday week-end. However, resistance to paying above the official quotes appears to have eased a little, but overall prices are still below the level of a month ago.