The sheep trade is ending the year on a high note, with factories keen to handle a relatively high number of sheep over the Christmas period.

Most deals for lambs to be slaughtered on Friday 27 December have already been negotiated.

A high percentage of sheep for Monday 30 December and Tuesday 31 December have also been lined up, but agents are still sourcing sheep. Slaughtering will resume as normal from 2 January.

Base quotes remain unchanged, ranging from €8.60/kg to €8.70/kg for quality assured sheep. The two Irish Country Meats plants remain on €8.70/kg, with other plants generally offering an opening price of €8.60/kg for quality assured sheep.

A high percentage of lambs are trading from €8.80/kg to €8.90/kg, while, at the top end of the market, deals of €9/kg have been sanctioned for large consignments of lambs.

Lamb prices are finishing the year on a positive note, with prices averaging over €1.25/kg above 2023 levels. Higher prices have been largely driven by tight supplies, with throughput currently running over 360,000 head lower than in 2023. This includes over 80,000 fewer hoggets, in excess of 60,000 fewer ewes and rams and over 210,000 fewer lambs.

All forecasts point to lower numbers of sheep likely to be carried forward to 2025, with throughput in the first quarter of the year likely to continue to run well below previous year’s levels.

Factories are generally less inclined for ewes at this stage of the year, but with lamb supplies so tight, they are happy to use ewes to supplement numbers.

Quotes are in the region of €4.30/kg to €4.40/kg in most plants, with top prices for significant numbers of hitting €4.50/kg.

Some abattoirs specialising in the ewe trade are not processing this week, but are keen to source ewes for next week. Prices here are in the region of €4.80/kg and higher.

Northern trade

Base quotes in factories in Northern Ireland are in the region of £6.80/kg or the equivalent of €8.24/kg. Regular sellers and those handling large numbers are securing returns of £6.90/kg to £7/kg (€8.48/kg).

Numbers of sheep exported to plants in Ireland for direct slaughter continue to run up to 40% lower than 12 months earlier. A significant percentage of the shortfall in sheep exported live are destined for the British and continental EU markets.

French lamb prices top the main sheep-producing nations in Europe at over €10.40/kg, while Spanish prices are in excess of €9.65/kg. There is a significant differential in price to Australian and New Zealand prices at €5.52/kg and €4.47/kg respectively.