Sheep prices are running from €25 to €50 per head higher than the corresponding period in 2023, with much tighter supplies fuelling higher demand.

Factory lamb quotes are in the region of €1/kg to €1.15/kg higher equating to a €22 to €25 per head increase. Throughput of spring lambs is now running over 80,000 lower than in 2023 with year-to-date throughput down almost 200,000 head.

Higher prices and lower lamb numbers on the ground are inserting much more life in to the trade for store lambs.

Good-quality lowland lambs are trading on average from €3.30/kg to upwards of €3.50/kg with light lambs meeting a much improved trade on autumn 2023.

Producers will rightly point to the fact that such price increases have been in cases eroded by higher input costs in 2024 and, in many cases, fewer lambs available to sell. The tightness in supplies is especially evident in breeding hogget and ewe numbers.

Many managers have reported numbers collapsing in recent weeks, which is not surprising given the higher numbers of hoggets slaughtered earlier this year.

Prices are running upwards of €40 to €50 per head higher, with many mart managers reporting that prices are relatively stronger than at the start of the season.

Keen demand for pedigree rams is being fuelled by buying for the Sheep Improvement Scheme, while reports also indicate that some farmers opted to kill more lambs at higher prices earlier this year.