TOO many slaughter companies are giving prime cattle finishers an unnecessary caning and finishers with cattle to sell should hold out for higher prices, the National Beef Association said this week.

The NBA beef slaughterings dropped from 31,000 head to 25,000 head last week, with so many animals held up in infected areas. But, instead of this acute shortfall raising ex-farm prices, as it would have done under normal conditions when almost half the available cattle would have been bought competitively at auction, a large number of abattoirs have ignored tighter supplies and continued to drive prices even lower.

"This is an incredible situation. Prime cattle will be scarce until the 76,000 animals backed up in infected areas are allowed to come on to the market, we hope some time next week," said Mr Robert Forster, NBA chief executive.

"We know buyers are scouring the free areas of the country for all the cattle they can find, yet only a relatively small number of abattoirs have moved their prices upwards and some farmers tell us they are being offered less than they were two weeks ago.

"Finishers must respond by becoming tougher sellers and resist the efforts of companies buying cattle for supermarkets to pay as little as possible by working harder to find those buyers who are ready to pay a great deal more."

According to the NBA, farmers would have been able to spot this development for themselves if the majority of abattoirs had agreed to disclose their buying price for R4Ls, as requested by a number of farming papers as well as by the association itself.

"This is proof that abattoirs can buy cattle for less than they are worth if they can confuse market values by holding back public information on prices," said Mr Forster. "Their ability to keep the amount they pay hidden must be immediately challenged by farmers, the MLC and MAFF. It is absolutely wrong that people selling cattle have so little idea of what they are really worth and what a range of potential purchasers are ready to pay.

"It is also clear that the price-setting function of auction markets is already badly missed. The NBA is determined this will be restored when the foot-and-mouth epidemic has been conquered but, until then, the fight to prevent the complete disappearance of competition and transparency must be taken up by individual farms as well, otherwise too many people will continue to sell cattle for much less than their real market value."