The sheep kill for the first six months of the year have dropped significantly in Scottish abattoirs on the back of a difficult spring. Poor grass growth over the past six weeks has also had an effect on the kill with more numbers only coming fit for slaughter over the past few weeks.

Up to 1 July, the 2018 sheep kill stood at 481,260 head. This is a drop of nearly 150,000 head compared to highs of 630,348 head killed in the same period in 2015, representing a 24% drop. However, numbers have been falling consecutively since 2015.

UK slaughterings

The trend has been seen right across the UK with slaughtering’s of clean sheep in June standing at 872,500 head. This represents a 16% (171,900 head) decline on year earlier levels, according to a recent AHDB report. Reasons for the reduced kill have been attributed to poor conditions at lambing reducing the number of lambs on the ground combined with the subsequent lack of growth, increasing the length of time it is taking to finish lambs.

Overall in the year to June, over 184,000 fewer clean sheep have been slaughtered, compared to the same period last year, standing at 5.745 million head. Additionally, significantly fewer new season lambs have been recorded at auction markets so far this year when compared to last.

However, the past couple of weeks have seen the numbers of lambs coming to marts increasing substantially which has seen the seasonal decline in prices as they drop to £1.81/head. This is on the back of a falling price paid for lambs in abattoirs with an average price of £4.40/kg being paid across the UK.

As we look forward towards the autumn it is difficult to anticipate how the trade will go. On one hand a smaller lamb crop will mean that there are less lambs available for the store trade. However, on the other hand, with grass growth stalling and some farmers having to feed winter forage to stock to fill the gap already, farmers may choose to sell lambs as opposed to trying to carry them over the winter on reduced forage stores. Buyers may also have reduced levels of forage available.