The feature of the sheep trade in recent weeks has been supplies finely balanced with demand and this remains no different as the year draws to a close.

Base quotes from the main export plants continue to range from €4.75/kg to €4.85/kg, with Kildare Chilling top of the export plants after lifting its quote by 5c/kg to a base of €4.85/kg.

Ballon Meats and Moyvalley Meats continue on an all-in quote of €4.90/kg and €5.00/kg respectively.

The majority of sheep for this week’s shorter three-day kill are being provided by regular suppliers, specialist winter finishers and producer groups with deals by and large completed in advance of the Christmas break.

Prices paid for lambs from these sources range in general from €5.00/kg to €5.05/kg, with only a small percentage of lambs moving above this level by means of lamb quality bonuses.

Sellers handling smaller numbers and possessing lower negotiating power are trading from €4.90/kg to €5.00/kg, with very few lambs trading below this level.

This supply source will be required more next week to supplement throughput.

Exceeding a carcase weight of 22.5kg continues to be a difficult feat, with few reports of factories increasing to 23kg.

Where this has occurred, prices have in cases reduced in line meaning the overall top price achieved by the producer is not differing greatly.

NI trade

The trade in the north also remains unchanged. Base quotes are generally £3.90/kg or the equivalent of €4.40/kg at Wednesday afternoon’s exchange rate of 85.5p to the euro and €4.65/kg when VAT at 5.4% is factored into the calculation. Top prices continue to rise to £4.00/kg (€4.76/kg).

Northern sheep remain an important source of throughput and continue to make up about 12% to 15% of the southern weekly kill.

Numbers imported south for direct slaughter are similar to 2016 and at 387,286 head up to the final two weeks of the year, are running 5,499 above last year’s level.

Therefore, it is likely that end-of-year imports from Northern Ireland will be in the region of 400,000 head.

There will be close attention paid to Brexit trade negotiations and how they could impact on this supply flow to southern plants.

There will also be close attention paid in 2018 as to how trade negotiations split New Zealand’s tariff-free quota of about 227,000t. A large percentage of this came with Britain on joining the EU and farm organisations in Ireland and the EU are looking for Britain to take a similar slice of the quota on their exit.

The British trade also finished the year steady, with average prices strengthening marginally by 1p/kg. R grade lambs are trading from £4.00/kg to £4.05/kg (€4.76/kg to €4.82/kg incl VAT), with U grades 5p/kg higher.

Ewe trade

Demand for ewes has been more positive in recent weeks, with supplies becoming tighter. Some sources say there could be higher numbers of ewes available next week once farmers have made their census returns for 2017.

If this is the case, the good news is that there has been greater market demand in recent weeks for ewes, with quotes ranging from €2.70/kg to €2.80/kg and top prices paid from €2.90/kg to €3.10/kg.

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