Last week’s sheep kill (week ending August 8) saw a big fall on the week before – down over 8,000 head – figures from the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM) reveal.

Ever since the end of the Eid al-Adha festival, the weekly kill has gradually been coming down week-on-week and last week, it came to 50,145 head.

Looking at the figures in more detail, for the week ending August 8, 50,145 sheep were processed – which was a decrease of 8,052 head from the week before.

The number of lambs slaughtered during the week ending August 8, accumulated to 41,850 head – which is a fall of 7,471 head from the week previous.

Ewe and ram throughput totalled 7,780 head - which was back 818 head on the previous week.

Taking a look at this year’s throughput figures to date, 1,525,223 sheep have been processed thus far.

Of that figure, 695,814 have been hoggets, while 643,976 have consisted of lambs.

Ewe and ram throughput makes up the rest at 185,322 head.

If we compare figures to date this year, against the same period in 2020, we can see that the total number of sheep slaughtered is back 136,015 head.

91,406 fewer hoggets have been processed in comparison to the same period last year and the number of spring lambs processed is also back 26,321 head.

While 18,355 fewer ewes and rams have been slaughtered as well.