Just over 62,000 sheep were slaughtered in the week ending Sunday, July 2 (week 26), a drop of just under 8,000 head on the previous week.
Week 26 of this year saw the Muslim festival Eid al Adha get underway which traditionally sees a spike in demand for lamb. This year’s festival took place over a week earlier than the 2022 festival.
In 2022, the pre-Eid sheep kill totalled just under 78,500 head, the highest weekly sheep kill of 2022 by far, according to figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
This year’s pre-Eid kill totalled 70,000 head, making it the largest weekly sheep kill to date this year, but smaller than last year.
The graph below gives an overview of the sheep kill to date this year:
Looking at the composition of the weekly sheep kill, the supply of hoggets has continued to wind down but remains much higher than the corresponding week of 2022.
In the final week of June this year, 5,350 hoggets were processed compared to 1,600 head of hoggets in corresponding week of 2022.
The cumulative hogget kill this year is 970,500 head, over 80,000 head above the 890,000 hoggets processed in the same time period last year. This is due to the much higher carryover of the 2022 lamb crop from 2022.
The table below gives a breakdown of the sheep kill to date this year by category compared to last year:
2023
Weekly2023
Cumulative2022
Weekly2022
CumulativeWeekly
DifferenceCumulative difference 23 vs. 22 % weekly difference 23 vs. 22 % cumulative
differenceLambs/Hoggets 5,356 970,491 1,638 890,117 3718 80,374 227% 9% Spring Lambs 51,149 294,926 45,411 320,948 5,738 -26,022 13% -8% Ewes and Rams 5,616 138,612 8,049 143,516 -2,433 -4,904 -30% -3% Light Lambs 2 122 – 89 2 33 – 37% Total 62,123 1,404,151 55,098 1,354,670 7,025 49,481 13% 4%
As the table above indicates, the carryover of hoggets from last year has continued to prop up the cumulative sheep kill figures this year.
The total number of sheep slaughtered this year is 49,000 head above last year. The cumulative hogget kill is 80,394 hoggets ahead of last year, but the cumulative spring lamb kill this year is 26,000 head below last year’s figures.