Beef marts: Beef supply near highest level of at least 10 years

There are signs that the beef trade at factories is a shade firmer this week, and that the downward price pressure which some processors tried to exert last week has eased.

However, the supply of beef cattle to factories continues strong, as the usual peak time for the spring finishing trade approaches.

The supply last week was around 35,800 head, continuing the upward trend of previous weeks, and hitting the highest year-to-date weekly intake, which has set a new record supply level for February, and has come very close to breaching the 36,000 head per week spring peak throughput which has stood for more than a decade.