AFTER a few years with little discernible lift in prime cattle prices in the run up to Christmas, 2017 has restored the trend.
Over the past three years the lift in price between the start and end of November has been around 2-3p/kg dwt but this year the lift has been 7-8p/kg dwt on average, according to Stuart Ashworth, Quality Meat Scotland’s head of economic services.
‘The lift in this year’s price for cattle grading R4L is slightly lower, at 6p/kg dwt, so perhaps not surprisingly the higher lift in the average price than the specific R4L grade suggests a higher proportion of premium grades in the overall kill,’ said Mr Ashworth. Similarly, it is still the case that the current prime stock price is lower than it was in late September. ‘We have to go back to 2014 to find the last time that the end of November price was higher than the end of September price.’