This week, Scottish legs of lamb are selling for £5.50/kg in supermarkets while farmers are paid up to £6.45/kg for the whole carcase.

Clearly, retailers have calculated that losing money on every leg of lamb is worth it if customers buy the rest of their Easter shopping in their store.

Scottish abattoirs are paying farmers £6.30 to £6.45/kg for R grading hoggets up to 21kg, which is unchanged.

The Monday and Tuesday live sales didn’t move much this week, with prices around £2.65-£2.90/kg for medium weight hoggets.

Across Scotland, the average for the week ending 27 March was £2.76/kg, down 9p/kg for medium weight hoggets.

Aberdeen and Northern Marts sold 330 store lambs on Tuesday, which averaged £92/head, up £6

The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for across GB for the same week was £6.30/kg for an R3L carcase, which is down 12p/kg.

The ewe price in Scotland is £87/head, which is down £2 on the week for over 4,500 sold.

Aberdeen and Northern Marts sold 330 store lambs on Tuesday, which averaged £92/head, up £6. They also sold 725 gimmers and ewes with lambs at foot for an average of £79/life, up £4. Pregnant breeding ewes were making £102.50/head.

Strong beef price

The beef price edged up again about 2p/kg in the last week, with most abattoirs paying £4.10 to £4.15/kg for R grade carcases under 400kg.

The official AHDB price for the week ending 27 March is £4.08/kg for an R4L steer, which is up 5p/kg.

Same-grade heifers were £4.11/kg, which is up 6p on the week.

The young bull price is up 2p/kg to £3.90/kg.

The liveweight store price for steers weighing 465kg to 555kg was £2.42/kg across all Scottish marts for the week ending 27 March

Finished cows were reported by the AHDB at £2.87/kg for an 0-4, which is up 6p/kg on the week. Across marts in Scotland, cull cows averaged £1.51/kg, a rise of 11p with 439 sold through marts.

The liveweight store price for steers weighing 465kg to 555kg was £2.42/kg across all Scottish marts for the week ending 27 March. Heifers weighing 400kg to 480kg were selling for £2.45/kg.

United Auctions in Stirling sold 1,225 store cattle last week, with steers at £2.53/kg, which was up 4p/kg on the week.

Lanark Mart sold 965 cattle last week

Dairy steers averaged £2.05/kg, which is up 5p/kg on the week. Heifers sold for an average of £2.45/kg, which was unchanged on the week.

Lanark Mart sold 965 cattle last week, where steers averaged £2.46kg, heifers £2.37/kg and dairy bullocks £2.03/kg.

Thainstone sold 1,212 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.65/kg, up 6p and heifers £2.65/kg, up 12p/kg.

Fodder sale

Carlisle’s fodder sale saw barley round bales selling for an average of £32/bale and oat straw bales sold to £29/bale and mini hestons to £110/t. Wheat straw mini hestons were at £108/t. Hayledge bales sold to £22/bale and round bales of hay for £20/bale.