The fall in Irish sheepmeat production is well documented, with throughput for the year to date running almost 300,000 head lower.

As reported in this week’s paper, all of the main sheep producing countries in Europe are recording major reductions in throughput.

This includes the UK, with the latest market update published by the Agriculture Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) reporting the UK sheep kill in October 2024 being the lowest on record.

The 1.09m sheep slaughtered in October was the first month that the sheep kill exceeded the 1m head mark.

The kill represented an increase of 133,500 head on September 2024 levels, but this was still 18,000 head lower than throughput in October 2023.

Production challenges

The record low figure is reflective of production challenges encountered in Britain in 2024. The clean sheep kill up until October 2024 is running at 9.29 head, a reduction of 704,000 head compared with the corresponding period in 2023.

AHDB analyst Tom Spencer says production of 218,000 is running 7% lower for the year to October, including production of 25,000t in October. The lamb and hogget kill is 7% lower, with the adult sheep kill 12.5% lower.

It says this is likely an influence of both difficult growing conditions this year and reduced breeding numbers illustrated by 2024’s breeding flock running 5.6% lower on 1 June 2024 compared with the previous year’s levels.