The Scottish beef price has dipped in some killing houses, as abattoirs blame a fall in demand for a 5p reduction to £4.15/kg for R grades.

The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) Scottish beef price for an R4L steer is £4.26/kg, which is down 4p/kg.

Same-grade heifers were £4.27/kg, which is down 2p on the week. The young bull price is unchanged at £4.17/kg.

Finished cows were reported by the AHDB at £3.04/kg for an 0-4, which is up 1p/kg on the week.

Dingwall and Highland Marts sold 426 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.47/kg and heifers averaging £2.50/kg

Thainstone sold 1,666 store cattle last Friday, with steers averaging £2.50/kg, unchanged on the week, and heifers £2.47/kg, up 2p/kg.

Dingwall and Highland Marts sold 426 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.47/kg and heifers averaging £2.50/kg.

Orkney Mart sold 259 store cattle, with steers topping at £2.48/kg for a 570kg Belgian Blue and heifers to £2.52/kg for a 620kg Limousin.

Dumfries Mart sold 250 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.44/kg and heifers £2.22/kg.

Lamb price

Scottish abattoirs are paying between £6.40/kg and £6.60/kg for hoggets. However, heavy discounts are applied for hoggets where the incisor teeth have erupted.

The live ring for hoggets fell 20p at £2.70/kg to £2.95/kg at Monday’s sales at Ayr, Lanark and St Boswells.

United Auctions on Thursday 13 May sold 305 spring lambs for an average of £3/kg, down 33p/kg, and 2,627 prime hoggets to an average of £2.59/kg, which is down 39p/kg.

Newton Stewart held a sale of hoggets last week which averaged £2.55/kg.

The AHDB price across Britain for last week was £6.70/kg for an R3L carcase, which is up 12p/kg

Across Scotland, the average for the week ending 14 May was £2.78/kg for medium-weight hoggets, down 18p/kg. New-season lambs are making £3.30/kg liveweight, down 1p/kg for the 729 that were sold last week.

The AHDB price across Britain for last week was £6.70/kg for an R3L carcase, which is up 12p/kg. The new-season lamb price is £7.20/kg, up 31p/kg, for an R3L for the 15,400 killed.

The ewe price in Scotland is £89/head, which is down £8 on the week for just over 4,100 sold.

United Auctions sold 4,603 breeding ewe hoggs on Monday 17 May. Mule hoggs averaged £161/head, up £41 on the year. Texel ewe hoggs rose £6.25 to £165/head. Cheviot mules ewe hoggs averaged £150, a rise of £26.93/kg on the year.

Pure Cheviot ewe hoggs sold for £139, up £39 on the year, and Blackface ewe hoggs were £133, which was the only breed to average below last year’s price, with a fall of £7/head.

Fodder sale

Warmer conditions are getting a lot of cattle into fields in Scotland. Thainstone sold 1,193 bales of fodder. Inside five foot round bales were selling for £18/bale and hay £12.50/bale down £1.50. Haylage bales were selling at £20/bale.