Following three broken weeks of processing for public holidays in which time patchy rain and thunderstorms have shown the weather can at least rain somewhere the most noteworthy figure with this past week’s eastern states slaughter is the percentage of cows has dropped markedly.
This was most noticeable in NSW whereby the portion of female cattle processed has dropped to 48.3 percent of that state’s weekly kill after averaging at more than 52 percent for the past three months.
While Queensland’s portion of females slaughtered also dropped its rate of decline was not as significant albeit being its lowest since the year’s beginning.
The slaughter of lamb and mutton also edged higher week-on-week although the number of mutton processed remains significantly higher (50pc) for the quarter than one ago levels while the processing of lamb is running 14pc down over the same period.