New season lamb scarce

Marts: The supply of spring lamb for Easter celebrations has been tight, reflecting the early Easter this year and the swing away from early spring lamb production by producers because of the poor returns.

The tight supply has boosted demand for quality hoggets, leading to an increase in prices at both the live sales and factories over the past week. The Spring lamb prices at the factories are up about 10% on 2007.

Up to €86 over was paid for the best of the new season lambs at Kilkenny Mart where the top price of €127/head was paid for a pen of eight lambs weighing 41kg. The new season lamb prices at Kilkenny ranged from €70 over. At Fermoy Mart butchers paid up to €84 over, with the highest price at €127/head being paid for a pen of four lambs weighing 43kg. Prices ranged from €85/head to €127/head which was equivalent to €50 over to €84 over.

At the factories there was no slaughtering yesterday and Thursday’s quoted prices were a base of 560c/kg (200p/lb) at most of the plants. Producers with quality Spring lambs are reported to have sealed direct deals with the factories for 10-15c/kg above the official quotes in recent days.

Hogget prices also made gains at the factories with demand for the Easter trade. Quoted base prices increased to 410c/kg (146p/lb) while up to 20c/kg more was being paid to get sufficient supplies this week.

The demand was also reflected at the live sales at the marts. Butchers paid up to €58 over for quality hoggets at Fermoy, where up to €114/head was realised for 56kg hoggets. They sold for up to €50 over at Kilkenny Mart and the factories paid up to €44 over. At Cahir up to €52 over was paid for the hoggets.

The factory prices for the spring lambs are about 10% higher than 2007, and prices being paid for the hoggets by the processors are 5%-10% higher than last year. The hogget prices for the Easter trade at the marts are up 15-20% on 2007.