Producers hope base price will not breach the €5/kg barrier

Processors have taken their knives to the prices again and sliced 5-10 cents/kg off the producer returns across all of the prime grades of cattle for this week's intake

Three months ago anyone in the business who'd have predicted steer base prices dropping to €5/kg by early June would have been laughed at for living in cloud cuckoo land so far from reality.

Beef farmers who held back on moving finished cattle over recent weeks in the hope of demand leading to a price recovery are being badly burned this week — and it is not the continued glorious weather that's responsible.

The finishers of forward stores bought in at high prices five months ago are down €300 to €500/head from what they were hoping the market expectations would be returning to them by early June.