There has been little movement in the lamb price, with many factories opting to maintain quotes at pre-Christmas levels.
Kepak Athleague continues to lead the way with a base price of 465c/kg +5c/kg Quality Assurance bonus, closely followed by Kildare Chilling who is offering 455c/kg +10c/kg QA for lambs on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, looking at the two Irish Country Meats plants, both are operating off a base price of 450c/kg and are paying 10c/kg bonus for lambs meeting the requirements of the Bord Bia Quality Assurance Scheme.
Moving on to ewe prices, the majority of processors have opted to maintain prices at pre-Christmas levels, with many starting negotiations with farmers are 230-240c/kg. There was a slight increase in the number of sheep slaughtered in Ireland in 2016, figures from Bord Bia show.
To the week ending December 17, some 2.2m sheep were slaughtered in approved sheepmeat export plants – an increase of 2.7% or 68,107 head on the same time in 2015.
A spike in ewe and ram throughput can be attributed for this increase, with the cumulative ewe and ram kill jumping by 81,145 head or 26.8% on year before levels.
However, lamb slaughterings actually declined in 2016, with supplies down by 0.6% or 13,038 head when compared to the corresponding January to December period in 2015.
Sheep supplies jump 2.7% in 2016