ast week dropped under the 30,000 mark for only the second time this year. This confirms reports from throughout the country that cattle supplies have been tightening in recent weeks.Last week’s kill of just over 29,000 is the lowest kill so far this year, but is still 8% higher than the same week last year. Cumulative supplies since the beginning of the year are now running some 13% ahead of 2013 at 875,024.
The steer kill was over 10,000 again this week for the third week in a row and is some 18% ahead of the same week last year. So far this year a total of 271,367 steers have been killed up 16% on 2013 at this stage.
Last week saw the lowest heifer kill of the year at 6,908. This is well below the 9,000 mark which has been reached on many occasions this year. In contrast to steers the heifer kill is below the same week last year which was over 7,000.
The cow kill last week was 7,581 head more or less similar to the same week last year. However, cumulatively 197,953 cows have been killed so far this year up 3% on last year at this stage.
