Looking back on 2019, it will come as no surprise to farmers that the sheep kill was way below 2018 levels.
Last year brought many challenges to both lowland and hill sheep farmers. These include a dramatic fall in prices and demand across both meat processing facilities and marts.
Many factors contributed to the poor price farmers received for their sheep, but none more so than the beef protests that occurred in August of last year.
In many cases, farmers struggled to get their lambs through the picket lines and into the meat processing facilities. This, in turn, saw a huge backlog of lambs when the protests eventually stood down.
Furthermore, this backlog had a knock-on effect on the prices factories were offering farmers for their animals.
This led to farmers receiving prices as low as 380c/kg for lambs that were overweight. Moreover, base quotes dropped to as low as 430c/kg in meat processing plants.
The beef protests and poor prices being offered by meat processing facilities had a negative effect on the sheep trade last year, and this is quite clear when you see the figures for the number of sheep slaughtered in factories in 2019.
Data source: Department of Agriculture
Figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine show that the number of sheep slaughtered fell by over 200,000 head compared to 2018. These figures include lambs and cast ewes and rams.
The number of lambs processed in factories in 2019 fell by over 1% compared to 2018 – a decrease of over 90,000 head – and amounted to 1,636,971 head.
Furthermore, the total number of cast ewes and rams processed fell by over 19% – a decrease of over 97,000 head – compared to the 2018 figure and amounted to 406,663 head.
Moreover, the number of hoggets slaughtered at Department of Agriculture approved meat export plants stood at 739,027 head. This is a decrease of over 90,000 head or 11% compared to the 2018 figure.
Total number of sheep slaughtered 2019 versus 2018:
- Hoggets: 739,027 (-90,879 or -11%);
- Spring lambs: 1,635,336 (-17,865 or -1%);
- Ewes and rams: 406,663 (-97,583 or -19%);
- Total: 2,782,661 (-204,873 or -7%).
Overall, the number of sheep processed in factories in 2019 was down 204,873 head. In total, 2,782,661 sheep were slaughtered in 2019 – down 7% on the 2018 figure.
As a whole – across the entirety of 2019 – the weekly sheep kill on average was below that of the corresponding figure in 2018.