Abattoirs pulled the beef price slightly this week with many farmers getting £3.70 to £3.85/kg for R grade continental steers under 400kg.

Meanwhile, abattoirs were paying £4.60/kg for R grade lambs showing continued demand for sheep meat.

Store cattle weighing over 400kg are making at least £1,000 head in marts across Scotland.

The official AHDB steer price was £3.88/kg for an R4L for the week ending 26 September which is a fall of 4p/kg.

R4L heifers dipped 3p/kg to £3.88/kg and same-grade young bulls dropped 5p/kg to an official AHDB price of £3.73/kg. Cows grading O-4L also dropped 2p/kg to £2.68/kg.

The number of store cattle sold through the ring rose by nearly 2,500 animals to 8,425. The national average dropped by £19 to £909/head.

Prime lambs

Meanwhile, prime lambs in the live ring were making £2.00/kg for medium weights which is down 6p/kg. Heavy lambs dipped below £2/kg to £1.94/kg, a fall of 6p.

Marts sold 26,569 prime lambs in the ring which was similar to last week making it a month of over 26,000 lambs a week. The UK average price published by the ADHB sits at £4.63/kg deadweight for R grade lambs which is a fall of 1p/kg.

The live ring sold 11,785 ewes last week which was a rise of 1,000. The average price rose by 96p/head to £64.50/head.

There has been another big week for the marts selling store lambs, with 25,572 being sold to an average of £63/head. The biggest sale of the week was in Thainstone where 7,500 store lambs were sold with an average of £63.91/head. Lanark and United Auctions both held sales of around 6,500 lambs with an average of £59/head and £66/head respectively.

United Auctions (UA), Castle Douglas and St Boswell marts all had store sheep sales where continental lambs averaged over £70/head, with UA getting £79/head, the highest of the week.

Across Scotland, continental and Suffolk lambs are commanding around £69/head up £2/head, while Cheviots averaged £54/head down £2/head and Blackfaces £51/head unchanged.

Confidence in the sheep sector could be under pinned by future tight supply as Defra announced the English flock is down by over 2% on last year.