No good news in sight as prices still under pressure

It is another difficult week for beef farmers, prices at factories under continuing with downward pressure.

Most processors quote the base price for steers at 380 cents/kg. On top of this, penalties are being imposed for over-age, higher weights, and out-of-QA-spec animals. Some deals have been done with processors for a few cent over the base price, but it has become harder to secure any decent margin above 380 cent/kg this week.

The message from processors is not encouraging for the weeks ahead. Heifer prices, which had been running at around 5 cents/kg over steer prices up to this week, have slipped back to par with the steers this week. The first of the cattle off the grass have commenced arriving at factories, and processors do not expect to come under pressure to get sufficient stock.