The steady trade in the beef sector continues, with most abattoirs paying around £4.04/kg for R grading continental steers.

For the week ending 29 January, the official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for an R4L is unchanged on the week at £4.11/kg down 4p.

Same-grade heifers were £4.13/kg, which is down 4p on the week. The young bull price is £3.98kg deadweight, up 3p. Cows grading O-4L were £2.89/kg, which is up 3p on the week.

English and Welsh prices are 8p/kg more for R grading steers, which is worth £32/head for a 400kg carcase. Same-grading heifers are 5p/kg lower in Scotland than the rest of Britain.

Dairy steers averaged £1.55/kg

United Auctions sold 1,128 store cattle last week, with steers averaging £2.31/kg, up 3p, and heifers £2.23/kg, up 4p. Dairy steers averaged £1.55/kg, down 30p for the 16 sold.

Thainstone sold 1,033 stores, with an average of £2.37/kg for steers, down 9p, and £2.35kg for heifers, which is up 2p.

Prime steers averaged £2.26/kg in the live ring

Lanark Mart sold 500 cattle, with steers averaging £2.21/kg and heifers £2.16/kg. The top price on the day was £1,440 for a Charolais-cross steer.

Ayr Mart sold steers which averaged £2.29/kg or £1,119/head and heifers for £2.19/kg or £1,016/head. Friesian steers averaged £1.82/kg or £907/head.

Prime steers averaged £2.26/kg in the live ring, up 4p, and heifers averaged £2.30/kg, down 8p. Cull beef-sired cows averaged £1.47/kg, up 2p, and dairy cull cows averaged £1.15/kg up 9p.

Hogget trade

Scottish hoggets in abattoirs are being paid between £5.70 and £5.80/kg for R grading carcases up to 22kg.

The live trade jumped 5p to 10p, with marts this week averaging between £2.60 and £2.75/kg liveweight.

Heavy lambs averaged £2.52/kg last week, which is up 7p.

Ayr Mart sold some in-lamb ewes for £120/head

The AHDB price for an R3L hogget across the UK is £5.80/kg, which is down 8p/kg for the week ending 29 January.

Ayr Mart sold some in-lamb ewes for £120/head and in-lamb hoggets for £112/head. The cull ewe price in Scotland averaged £92/head, which is down £6 for the 3,815 sheep sold.

Fodder sale

Wheat straw dropped in demand at Carlisle Mart, where bales were selling for £18.50/bale, with mini hestons going for £85/t.

Meanwhile, barley straw was at £27/bale and hay was making £30/bale.

Aberdeen Northern Marts sold 612 inside stored barley straw bales for an average of £16.65/bale, while outside stored bales averaged £14/bale.

Inside stored large square bales averaged £37/bale.

Haylage averaged £22/bale, silage sold for £15.60/bale and hay for £22.60/bale.

The same sold a total of 1,403 bales of fodder on Tuesday 1 February.