The lamb trade at marts this past week has remained largely positive as sales, at some marts for 2021, start to come to a close.
Some marts have recorded strong entries of sheep at sales this past week and this is realistically, a contributing factor to the trade holding steady, as more sheep come on stream, giving buyers more choice to pick from.
Another factor, is that factory prices are holding firm.
Looking at the trade, lambs over 50kg continue to trade from a base of €156/head up to €168/head in general, with some lambs pushing returns of €170/head.
Lambs in the 44-49kg weight bracket have been trading from €135-140/head up to €160/head, with again, some pushing returns of €162/head (excellent quality lots).
The store lamb trade continues to tail off slightly, as demand lessens and quality becomes more variable.
In general, forward stores continue to trade from €130/head up to €135/head – with slightly lesser quality lambs selling back to €120/head.
In general, lambs over the 20kg mark are starting at a base of over €50/head for hill-bred lambs and moving up to high of €115-120/head for better-quality, lowland-bred lambs.
Moving onto the cull ewe trade, well-fleshed heavy ewes continue to sell from a wide range of €140/head up to €170/head in general, with some exceptional ewes over 100kg continuing to buck this trend and selling at levels greater to this.
Furthermore, prices for store ewes range from €40-50/head up to €110-135/head for forward feeding ewes.