Scottish Prices: Scotch PGI beef cattle £30/head below English price

The trade in Scotch PGI beef is still running below the prices on offer to English farmers.

An R4L steer is getting 7p/kg less in Scotland than northern England, where they could be worth up to £30/head extra.

Farmers in Scotland are also having to wait to get cattle killed in abattoirs, which is helping keep prices down.

The amount paid for an R grading continental steer carcase is around £4.05/kg this week.

For the week ending 12 February, the official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for an R4L carcase is £4.09/kg, down 1p. Same-grade heifers were £4.12/kg, which is down 1p on the week.

The young bull price is £3.98kg deadweight, down 5p. Cows grading O-4L were £2.98/kg, up 5p on the week.

United Auctions in Stirling sold 1,188 store cattle last week, with steers averaging £2.37/kg, down 2p, and heifers £2.28/kg, down 3p. Dairy steers averaged £1.82/kg, up 12p for the 58 sold.

Thainstone sold 1,143 stores, with an average of £2.55/kg for steers, up 15p, and £2.49kg for heifers, which is up 14p.

Dingwall sold 831 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.43/kg and a high price of £3/kg for a 270kg Limousin-cross. The top price per animal was £1,340 for a 640kg for a Simmental. Heifers averaged £2.33/kg and a high price of £2.87/kg for a 265kg British Blue-cross and £1,380 for a 650kg Simmental-cross. Young bulls sold for up to £2.53/kg for a 355kg Charolais-cross.

Prime steers averaged £2.28/kg in the live ring, up 1p, and heifers averaged £2.39/kg, up 9p on the week. Cull beef-sired cows averaged £1.59/kg, up 12p, and dairy cull cows averaged £1.24/kg, up 9p.

Hogget trade

Scotch hoggets in abattoirs are still getting around £5.90/kg for R grading carcases up to 22kg. The live trade didn’t change much on the week, with marts averaging between £2.57/kg and £2.70/kg liveweight.

Heavy hoggets are still averaging £2.53/kg, keeping a 52kg hogget worth £132/head.

The AHDB price for R3L hogget across the UK is £5.91/kg, which is up 11p/kg for the week ending 12 February.

The cull ewe price averaged £90/head, which is down £1 for the 6,364 sheep sold.

In-lamb ewes were selling to £158 for Texel-cross and £104 for Cheviot mules at Ayr Mart.

Fodder sale

Wheat straw was steady at Carlisle mart where bales were selling for £18 to £20/bale with mini hestons going for £77/t. Barley straw with mini hestons £98/t up £19. Oat straw was selling for £18/bale down £3.

Aberdeen Northern Marts sold inside stored barley straw bales for an average of £16.50/bale up £1.50, inside stored large square bales were averaged £34/bale down £1. Inside wheat straw sold for £10/bale and hay was £26.60/bale up £5.60. Silage bales were back at £19.80/bale.