Abattoirs are still paying over £5.00/kg for R grading lamb carcases.

Prime lambs were making around £2.30/kg which is back 5p/kg on the week.

The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for R3L lambs across the UK is £5.28/kg, up 1p.

UA Stirling sold 9,473 store lambs, where Texels averaged £84/head, up £2; Cheviot Mules £77, down £9; Mules £74, down £3; Suffolks £85, up £2; Beltex £85, down £7; Cheviots £69, up £3; and Blackfaces £63, up £5.

Thainstone held its first gimmer sale, with half-breds averaging £188/head, up £12 on the year; Cheviot Mules £176/head, down £13; Mule gimmers £182, up £9; Pure Texel £156, no change; continental gimmers £152, down £23; Lleyn gimmers £172 up £7; and Lleyn ewe lambs £95, down £12.

Castle Douglas held its annual sale of 2,248 Blackface ewe lambs, which averaged £102/head – up £3 on the year.

Newton Stewart held a breeding sheep sale, with Cheviot ewes making £108/head and Mule ewe lambs £105/head, which are similar prices to last year.

Suffolk store lambs averaged £88/head, up £15 on the year; Texels £72/head, up £2; and Mules also £72/head, up £2.

Huntly Mart sold over 4,000 sheep at a breeding sale last weekend, with Mule gimmers averaging £177/head, up £14 on the year; Texel gimmers £181/head, up £1; and Cheviot mules £177/head, unchanged on the year.

Strong beef trade

The price paid for R grading steers in Scottish abattoirs is continuing at £4.10 and £4.20/kg. The AHDB beef price for an R4L steer is at £4.24/kg, down 1p.

Same-grade heifers were £4.25/kg, which is down 1p on the week. The young bull price is £4.13/kg deadweight, up 1p/kg. Cows grading O-4L were up 2p to £3.22/kg.

Quoybrae sold 957 store cattle, which averaged £2.33/kg for steers and £2.30/kg for heifers. The overall sale average was £1,101/head.

Dumfries Mart sold 381 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.33/kg and heifers £2.23/kg.

UA Stirling sold 535 cattle, with steers averaging £2.35/kg and heifers £2.23/kg.

Caledonian Mart in Stirling held a sale of store cattle and suckled calves.

Steer calves averaged £2.43/kg and heifer calves £2.58/kg. Older stores were £2.18/kg for steers and £2.08/kg for heifers.

The first of the autumn dairy sales at Borderway Mart in Carlisle sold over 400 cattle.

The 91 milking Holstein heifers averaged £1,767/head, 16 Holstein cows in milk averaged £1,871/head, 10 Ayrshire heifers in milk £1,856/head, three British Friesian cows/heifers in milk £2,033 and 15 dry cows £1,311/head.

Fodder sale

Carlisle Mart held a fodder sale, with round bales of barley straw making £22/bale and mini hestons of wheat straw making £85/t.