Little change in the week’s opening lamb and hogget prices

Sheepmeat market report

Last Monday's sheep sale at Kenmare Co-Op Mart, Co Kerry.

Fears of further lamb price reductions at factories didn’t materialise when processors re-opened for business this week.

It has been an exceptional year to date for sheep farmers, of all-time record high prices, but a sharp price cut took as much as 40c/kg off the top prices last week.

The export meat plant intake has been 7% behind 2020 levels, with live imports for direct slaughter from Northern Ireland back 30%.

Early this week, most processors quoted a base price of 750 cents/kg for lambs, with the 10-15c Quality Assured premium to be added. One processor moved to 770 cents/kg plus the bonus for quality.

There is still plenty of demand for hoggets at factories, and the price gap between them and new season stock is only 40-50 cents/kg, an indication that hoggets are still required in numbers to meet weekly market requirements.

The number of spring lambs in the system is rising steadily (21% of mid-April factory throughput), and they will overtake the hoggets quite soon, as sheep farmers bid to take advantage of current higher prices.

Hoggets were generally quoted for early this week at a base of 700-710 cents/kg plus the bonus for quality.

Due to the May Bank Holiday, some of the usual Monday live sales were deferred to later in the week. There had been some weakening in prices at marts last week, reflecting factory price cuts.