Beef prices stabilise but leaders are going to have take action to protect their members

One close observer argues that the 'ordinary farmer finishers' have lost any negotiating power to put pressure on the processors for price.

The belief is that the factories have been relying on feedlot supplies to make up their weekly requirement and reduce the price paid to direct farmer suppliers for several weeks past.

After consecutive weeks of a downturn, beef finishers are taking some hope for the future from the stabilising of the prices for the prime cattle at the factories for this week.

The processors have quoted unchanged prices for both steers and heifers as the changeover in supply from the feed lots to grass-finished advances another notch.