Sheep purchasing for this week’s kill is complete, with factories operating at lower capacity on Monday and Tuesday and not slaughtering for the rest of the week.

Ballon Meats plant is closed for the full week, resuming slaughtering on Monday 29 December.

The trade is stagnant, with base quotes unchanged at €7.60/kg and the majority of plants operating at an opening quote of €7.80/kg for quality assured (QA) lambs.

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There are some groups and regular sellers securing returns of €7.90/kg, but exceeding this price has proven challenging, with fewer reports of €8/kg paid at the top end of the market.

Carcase weights also look like finishing out the year for the majority of sellers at 22.5kg.

There are some isolated reports of a 23kg payment limit being sanctioned, but this is predominately for groups that have a written agreement to move to 23kg carcase weight on a certain date and to some agents or regular sellers trading at the top end of the market.

Disappointed

Sellers hoping for a similar end-of-year price lift as occurred last year have been left disappointed, with base quotes running €1/kg lower than the corresponding period in 2024.

Plants have not left themselves exposed to operating with lower throughput and have been satisfied since spring to work with reduced throughput rather than compete strongly on price.

Throughput looks set to end their year at a massive figure of almost 440,000 head lower or an 18% drop.

Ewe throughput has reduced this week, with most plants focusing on lambs and showing little interest in ewes. Ewes are trading in the main from €4.30/kg to €4.40/kg, with some deals 10c/kg higher, but rare in occurrence.

Northern Ireland

There appears to be a better bite in the trade for lambs in factories in Northern Ireland.

While base quotes are unchanged at £6.30/kg (€7.21/kg), some sellers trading at the top end of the market have pushed returns above £6.40/kg (€7.33/kg), with top prices 5p/kg to 10p/kg higher.

Numbers of sheep exported south for direct slaughter continue to run at a lower level than in 2024, with year-to-date exports of over 220,000 head running almost 100,000 lower, while exports to farms at about 30,000 head up to November are running approximately 19,000 head lower.