Scottish prices: lamb continues to fly alongside robust beef market

The lamb trade in Scotland is showing no sign of weakness, with medium-weight lambs making £2.07/kg, which is 20% to 30% above the five-year market average.

This confidence is feeding into breeding sales, with lots of gimmers going for over £200/head across the country.

UK sheep farmers look to be taking comfort from the decline in New Zealand production and their exports to Europe and the UK while they shift focus to China.

Good numbers of store cattle were traded again this week

The beef market continues to strengthen as the kill so far in Scotland is ahead of last year. Meanwhile, BCMS and census figures show that there is to be less young stock for slaughter this year.

The official AHDB price for this week is £3.95/kg, up 1p.

R4L heifers dipped 1p/kg to £3.94/kg and same-grade young bulls dropped 4p/kg to an official AHDB price of £3.77/kg. Cows grading O-4L also dropped 4p/kg to £2.74/kg.

Good numbers of store cattle were traded again this week, with just under 5,000 animals going through Scottish marts. The national average dropped by £126 to £889/head largely due to a lot of smaller hill cattle coming onto the market.

Meanwhile, prime lambs in the live ring were making £2.07/kg for medium weights which is down 4p/kg. Heavy lambs were making, £2.02/kg which is down 6p/kg.

Marts sold 27,006 prime lambs in the ring which was similar to last week.

This rise in numbers may have contributed to a fall of £1.33/head to £62.51/head

The UK average price published by the ADHB sits at £4.64/kg deadweight for R grade lambs, which is a rise of 9p/kg.

The live ring sold 11,673 ewes this week, a rise of 14% as many farmers look to cull ewes not for breeding.

This rise in numbers may have contributed to a fall of £1.33/head to £62.51/head.

There was a 40% rise in store lambs being traded in Scotland as 38,233 head went through the ring. There was a big sale at Dingwall, which sold nearly 14,000 sheep to an average of £58.31/head. Stirling sold nearly 8,000 lambs with an average of £61.39/head.

The highest average price for store lambs was at Castle Douglas Mart, which averaged £77.33/head.

Across Scotland, continental and Suffolk lambs are commanding around £67/head down £4/head, while Cheviots averaged £56/head up £1/head and Blackfaces £51/head up £3/head.