Abattoirs are sticking to a base price of £3.80 to £3.85/kg for R grade Scotch qualifying cattle up to 400kg.

The Angus premium has also been cut back to 5p to 10p due to increased numbers of black cattle.

The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for R grading steers for the week ending 13 February was £3.88/kg, which is down 3p on the week.

Same-grade heifers were £3.89/kg, which is down 3p on the week. The young bull price dropped 4p/kg to £3.74/kg.

Finished cows were reported by the AHDB at £2.67/kg for an 0-4, which is up 1/kg.

United Auctions in Stirling sold cull cows at £1.38/kg for beef types, down 2p/kg.

Highest stores of season

Thainstone sold over 1,000 store cattle in a very strong sale, with steers averaging £2.54/kg, up 14p/kg, and heifers £2.39/kg up 10p/kg.

The sale averages per kg were the highest of the season so far, with an overall sale average of £1,143.40 per head.

United Auctions sold 1,174 store cattle, with prices rising 10p/kg.

Steers averaged £2.49/kg and heifers averaged £2.42/kg.

Ayr mart held a strong store cattle sale, which averaged £1,029/head across all classes. Steers averaged £2.29/kg or £1,068.43/head, heifers averaged £2.25/kg or £991/head and Friesian steers averaged £1.80/kg or £973/head.

Hoggets break £6/kg

Abattoirs are paying farmers £6.05/kg for R grading hoggets up to 21kg, which is up 15p/kg on the week.

The Monday live sales were up again, with £2.76/kg at Ayr, £2.80/kg at Lanark and a flying £2.89/kg at St Boswells. Some bigger hoggets could be close to £140/head.

The United Auctions sale last week of 4,218 prime hoggets sold to an average of £2.74/kg.

The AHDB price for across GB was £5.94/kg for an R3L carcase, which is up 12p/kg. The number of hoggets slaughtered in GB was over 34,000, which is down just under 1,000 on the week.

The ewe price in Scotland last week was £75/head, up £1/head for the just under 6,000 sheep sold.

Aberdeen and Northern Marts sold store lambs last week to an average of £94/head.

Ewes and lambs were sold for £85.77/life and pregnant ewes sold to an average of £131/head.

Straw down £12/t

Aberdeen and Northern Marts sold over 2,000 bales, with inside barley 4x4 bales selling to £11/bale, down £1.50.

Inside hay was selling for £13.50/bale and loose turnips for £29/t.

Carlisle’s fodder sale saw barley straw mini Heston bales drop £12/t to £118/t and round bales were selling for £34/bale. Mini hestons of hay sold for £77/t.