Sheep kill: Aftermath of Eid sees throughput fall over 13,500 head

Last week’s sheep kill (week ending July 25) saw a big fall on the week before – down over 13,500 head – figures from the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM) reveal.

Increased demand driven by the Eid al-Adha festival was behind the huge increase the week previous, and it wasn’t too surprising to see throughput fall back the way it did last week after the conclusion of the festival.

In saying that, a big kill was seen last week all the same, with factories continuing to show a strong appetite for sheep – as demand remains firm.

Looking at the figures in more detail, for the week ending July 25, 64,182 sheep were processed – which was a decrease of 13,749 head from the week before.

The number of lambs slaughtered during the week ending July 25, accumulated to a substantial 55,216 head – which is up a substantial drop of 16,412 head from the week previous.

Ewe and ram throughput totalled 8,751 head – up nearly 50% to 8,751 head on the week before.

Hogget throughput for the week ending July 25, totalled 215 head.

WEEK-ON-WEEK SHEEP KILL (WEEK ENDING JULY 25):

Hoggets: 215 head (-227 or -51%);
Ewes and rams: 8,751 head (+ or +49.3%);
Spring lambs: 55,216 head (-16,412 or -22.91%);
Total: 64,182 head (-13,749 or -17.64%).

Sheep kill to date

Taking a look at this year’s throughput figures to date, 1,416,881 sheep have been processed thus far.

Of that figure, 695,027 have been hoggets, while 534,959 have consisted of lambs.

Ewe and ram throughput makes up the rest at 168,944 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 nearly 93,000 head.

91,705 fewer hoggets have been processed in comparison to the same period last year.

While 18,915 fewer ewes and rams have been slaughtered as well, with only spring lamb throughput seeing an increase on this time last year (up 17,846 head).