The beef price remained firm this week, with most abattoirs paying around £4.12/kg for R grade carcases under 400kg. R grading young bulls are being paid at £4.07/kg in some abattoirs.

The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for the week ending 2 April is £4.17/kg for an R4L steer, which is up 9p/kg. Same-grade heifers were £4.18/kg, which is up 7p on the week. The young bull price is up 14p/kg to £4.04/kg.

Finished cows were reported by the AHDB at £2.95/kg for an 0-4, which is up 8p/kg on the week. Across marts in Scotland, cull cows average £1.50/kg – a fall of 1p, with 571 sold through marts.

The liveweight store price for steers weighing 465kg to 555kg was £2.39/kg across all Scottish marts for the week ending 27 March, down 3p/kg. Heifers weighing 400kg to 480kg were selling for £2.36/kg – a fall of 9p/kg.

United Auctions in Stirling sold 1,412 store cattle last week, with steers at £2.59/kg, which was up 6p/kg on the week.

Dairy steers averaged £2.01/kg, which is down 4p/kg on the week. Heifers sold for an average of £2.51/kg, which was up 6p/kg on the week.

Dumfries Mart sold 502 store cattle on Monday, with steers averaging £2.39/kg and heifers £2.35/kg. There was also a special sale of 122 organic cattle, which averaged £2.79/kg and £2.58/kg.

Quoybrae Mart in Caithness sold 925 stores, where steers averaged £2.61/kg and heifers £2.54/kg.

The sale average was up £200/head on the year, with a top price of £1,700 for a steer.

Lamb trade

Scottish abattoirs are paying farmers £6.20/kg for R grading hoggets up to 21kg.

Monday’s sales at Lanark and St Boswells both saw the average liveweight paid for hoggets over £3/kg, with Tuesday’s sales peaking at £3.15/kg in Dingwall.

Across Scotland, the average for the week ending 27 March was £3/kg, up 24p/kg for medium-weight hoggets.

The AHDB price for across GB for the same week was £6.25/kg for an R3L carcase, which is down 5p/kg. The kill across the UK has dropped from the 32,000 typical kill in the runup to Easter to 26,000.

The ewe price in Scotland is £97/head, which is up £10 on the week for over 4,500 sold.

Aberdeen and Northern Marts sold 433 store lambs on Tuesday, which averaged £83/head, down £9.

With snow on the ground, demand for fodder and straw has lifted. Inside barley straw was selling to £20/bale, inside hay £12.50/bale, wrapped silage £8.50/bale, fodder beet delivered £40/t and turnips ex-farm £27/t.

Grass lets

Dingwall and Highland Marts sold 657.77 acres in 44 lots at an average of £124.37 per acre and 163.2 acres of rough grazing in two lots at an average of £19.02 per acre.