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Prices in the factories have taken yet another fall. Most farmers are being paid €4.50/kg to €4.55/kg including bonuses for lambs, with €4.60/kg much harder to come by. These days, €4.70/kg is unheard of, which many farmers secured last week.
Factories are paying a premium of 10c/kg for quality assured (QA) lambs, with QA status starting to become more important now, with fewer lambs coming from certified producers later in the year.
Many factories are starting to increase weight limits paid for lambs now as we move into November from 21.5kg to 22kg. Numbers of lambs killed last week remain low at 48,261 head. This number is expected to drop significantly this week with one day’s less kill.
Processors continue to issue warnings on lamb presentation for slaughter. Irish Country Meats has already introduced a blanket charge of 20c/lamb in order to cover clipping charges. The IFA has met ICM to stress its opposition to the charge.
Kildare Chilling has issued a text to its producers, warning farmers that “dirty sheep will not be killed in the future”.
Kepak Athleague sent out a letter recently to its lamb producers explaining the importance of presenting lambs in a clean state for slaughter. Currently, there is no Department of Agriculture clean livestock policy on sheep and it is still only in the consultancy phase.
IFA national sheep committee chair John Lynskey said numbers of finished lamb remain tight. He said domestic supplies in France are forecast to tighten, which could see a lift in their demand for imports before year-end. Ewe prices remain unchanged at €2.30/kg to €2.50/kg.
UK
According to an outlook report published by the AHDB, supplies of lamb in the final quarter of 2016 are expected to continue to be tighter than last year, despite higher levels of production, as the weaker currency is helping to reduce imports and encourage exports.
This report suggests there could be upward pressure on prices in the UK if supplies tighten for the rest of 2016.
Irish lamb producers will be hoping this is the case because UK lamb is actively competing with our exports in France, where currently grade one Irish lamb was making around €4.87/kg (incl VAT) during the week.
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