Scottish abattoirs continue to pay £5.35/kg to £5.40/kg for R grade lambs this week. For the week ending 17 July, the live trade averaged £2.54/kg for medium-weight lambs, which was up 4p/kg and heavy lambs averaged £2.51/kg, which is a rise of 3p/kg. Across Scotland, lamb numbers rose over 1,000 to 11,306 sold.

This week, Ayr and Lanark marts were selling prime lambs at the same price as last week, with £2.51/kg and £2.56/kg, while St Boswell’s had a big price jump of 23p/kg to £2.71/kg.

United Auctions last Thursday saw its average rise 14p/kg to £2.62/kg and Thainstone rose 2p/kg to £2.49/kg.

Next week will see some of the first store lamb sales in Scotland

The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for across GB for the week ending 17 July was £5.48/kg for an R3L carcase lamb, up 3p/kg.

Slaughterings for Eid al-Adha helped push the UK lamb kill up by over 10,000 to 54,700 head. The ewe price in Scotland is £87/head, which is down £3 on the week for 7,628 sold.

Next week will see some of the first store lamb sales in Scotland.

This week, Carlisle held its first store sheep sale, which averaged £86/head, with strong lambs exceeding £100/head.

Beef price

The beef price in Scottish abattoirs is still £4.05 to £4.10/kg for R grade steers.

The AHDB Scottish beef price for an R4L steer is £4.19/kg, which is up 2p. Same-grade heifers were £4.18/kg, which is up 2p on the week.

The young bull price is £4.07/kg deadweight, which is up 1p/kg.

The prime cattle kill in GB was 31,400, which is down 3% on the week and down 7% on the same week a year ago.

The weekly average for medium-weight (465kg to 555kg) steer store cattle was £2.40/kg

AHDB’s official price for cows in Scotland is £3.15/kg for an 0-4, which is up 5p/kg on the week. This is over 30p/kg more than this time last year.

Just under 450 cull cows were sold in marts, with beef cows averaging £1.60/kg and dairy cows £1.26/kg.

The weekly average for medium-weight (465kg to 555kg) steer store cattle was £2.40/kg, while animals over 555kg were £2.23/kg.

Store heifers were £2.44/kg for medium weights (400kg to 480kg) and £2.32/kg for over 480kg. Store young bulls averaged £1.81/kg.

United Auctions sold 377 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.31/kg, down 5p/kg, and heifers averaging £2.28/kg, which was up 2p/kg. They also sold 69 dairy steers for an average £2.06/kg, up 15p/kg.

Imports

Figures from AHDB show that 15,200t of fresh and frozen beef arrived in the UK this May. There was a slight rebalancing, with a fall in imports from EU countries and a rise in imports from non-EU countries. However, overall, the volume coming to the UK was 2% less than the same month last year. Total imports for January to May was down 24% in 2021 compared with 2020.

The UK exported 8,500t of beef meat in May which is 4% less product than the same month last year. From January to May export volumes are down 30% compared with 2020.