Factories are slated for further price cuts this week
A FRUITFUL Summer of grass growth and ample fodder supplies continues to sustain a decent trade for young cattle at the marts – but the finishers have taken another ‘big hit’ this week with factory prices again being pulled.
While marts around the county report a lively enough trade for the small number of younger cattle on offer, there is a serious tapering off in prices for forward stores and heavier cattle.
Galway IFA Livestock Representative, Michael Flynn, told the Farming Tribune that quoted prices this week of €3.60 [€3.55 in some factories] for bullocks and €3.70 for heifers were ‘totally non-viable’ for finishers.
He warned too that there was also a move among some of the meat plants to go down the road of the system already in place for sheep, where they were putting in place a carcase restriction weight, above which there would be no payment. “The factories say that there are too many cattle and that they don’t have the market outlets for them, but we feel very strongly that this is just a smokescreen for cutting prices to farmers and increasing the meat plants’ own profits,” said Michael Flynn.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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