The lamb price in Scotland is rising, with most abattoirs paying over £5/kg, with some paying £5.15/kg for R grades.

Marts averaged between £2.15/kg and £2.45/kg this week for lambs. The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for R3L lambs across the UK is £5.02/kg up 8p for the week ending 2 October.

At UA Stirling’s store lamb sale Texels averaged £87/head up £4; Mules £84 up £3; Suffolks £87 up £9; Beltex £94 up £6; Cheviots £77 down £3; and Blackfaces £61 up £3. Islay mart sold 2,460 store lambs sold which averaged £85/head up £18 on the year. Dalmally sold 1,633 store lambs which averaged £67 up £17 on the year.

Stirling mart sold 961 tups with Texel shearlings averaging £681 up £21 on the year.

Beltex £627 up £49, Crossbred £627 up £33, Suffolk £558 up £145, LLeyn £583 up £279, Bluefaced Leicester £543 down £49 and Cheviot £415.00 up £8. Ram lambs averages were Suffolk £227 up £16, Texel £384 up £39, Blueface Leicester £448 up £111, Beltex £404 down £156.

Steady beef trade

The beef price in Scotland is static again at £4.10 to £4.20/kg for R grading steers. Some abattoirs have had to delay consignments of cattle due to labour shortages.

The AHDB beef price for an R4L steer is at £4.20/kg, down 1p. Same-grade heifers were £4.21/kg, down 1p. The young bull price is £4.11/kg deadweight, up 6p/kg. Cows grading O-4L were down 9p to £2.96/kg.

Thainstone sold 989 store cattle with steers averaging £2.35/kg and heifers £2.34/kg.

St Boswells held their show and sale of Native bred stores. The champion was an Aberdeen Angus cross steer which was sold for £1,460. The highest price on the day was £1,710 for a Shorthorn steer.

United Auctions held a sale of 1,418 store cattle at Stirling where steers averaged £2.31/kg and heifers £2.26/kg. Cull cows averaged £1.36/kg with a new mart record of £2,070 for a heavy Charolais cow. There was a sale at Oban with 804 weaned calves which averaged £722/head and £2.77/kg for steers. Heifers averaged £636/head and £2.47/kg.

Forfar sold 1,311 autumn born suckled calves which averaged £2.38/kg for steers and £2.33/kg for heifers.

Dumfries mart held a sale of 276 organic store cattle where steers averaged £2.40/kg and heifers £2.57/kg. The sale also had non-organic cattle where steers averaged £2.17/kg and heifers £2.24/kg. On the day a 500kg organic steer was getting a premium of around £115. They also sold dairy cattle with calved heifers averaging £1,760, in-calf heifers £1,343 and bulling and maiden heifers £876.

Fodder sale

Carlisle held a fodder sale this week where 4 foot round bales of barley straw were making £16 and £14 per bale. Round wheat straw bales were making £13 per bale and mini hestons were £78/t.