The beef trade remains unchanged in most abattoirs, apart from a few looking to pull the price.

The price paid for an R grading continental steer carcase is around £4/kg this week.

For the week ending 5 February, the official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for an R4L is £4.10/kg, down 1p.

Same-grade heifers were £4.13/kg, which is unchanged on the week.

The young bull price is £4.03kg deadweight, up 5p.

Cows grading O-4L were £2.93/kg, which is up 4p on the week.

The English and Welsh prices are 6p/kg more for R grading steers, which has narrowed the gap by 2p on the week.

United Auctions in Stirling sold 981 store cattle last week, with steers averaging £2.39/kg, up 8p, and heifers £2.31/kg, up 8p. Dairy steers averaged £1.74/kg, up 19p for the 41 sold.

Thainstone sold 787 stores, with an average of £2.40/kg for steers, up 3p, and £2.35kg for heifers, which is unchanged.

Quoybrae sold steers for an average of £2.28/kg and heifers averaged £2.22/kg.

St Boswell’s sold steers for an average of £2.44/kg and heifers for £2.36/kg.

Prime steers averaged £2.27/kg in the live ring, up 1p, and heifers averaged £2.30/kg, unchanged on the week. Cull beef-sired cows averaged £1.47/kg, unchanged, and dairy cull cows averaged £1.15/kg, also unchanged.

Hogget trade

Scotch hoggets in abattoirs are getting around £5.90/kg for R grading carcases up to 22kg.

The live trade didn’t change much on the week, with marts averaging between £2.55/kg and £2.75/kg liveweight.

Heavy hoggets averaged £2.53/kg last week, up 1p, putting a 52kg hogget at £132/head. The AHDB price for R3L hoggets across the UK is £5.90/kg, which is up 10p/kg for the week ending 5 February.

Thainstone sold 2,175 store hoggets for an average of £90/head and 27 breeding sheep for £136/head.

Quoybrae sold store lambs for an average of £85/head and cull ewes were £103/head. The cull ewe price in Scotland averaged £91/head, which is down £1 for the 6,513 sheep sold.

Fodder sale

Wheat straw dropped in demand at Carlisle Mart, where bales were selling for £20/bale, up £1.50, with mini hestons going for £79/t, down £6.

Barley straw sold for between £20/bale and £24/bale, with mini hestons also £79/t. Oat straw was £21/bale and small bales of hay were making £4/bale.

Aberdeen Northern Marts sold inside stored barley straw bales for an average of £15/bale, down £1.50. Inside stored large square bales averaged £35/bale, down £2. Silage was £23.50/bale. Hay bales were £21/bale and some hay from 2020 went for £25/bale. Small hay bales averaged £2.75/bale.