The first week of 2023 saw 51,000 sheep processed, up over 7,000 head on the corresponding week in 2022.
The first week of processing at meat processing plants was once again a shorter one due to the bank holiday Monday on account of New Year’s Day.
This resulted in a four-day processing week which ended with 51,760 sheep being processed, according to figures released by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
Looking at the kill figures for last week (week ending January 7), 46,292 hoggets were processed, along with 5,465 ewes and rams.
2022 sheep kill
Looking at the final kill figures for 2022, released by the DAFM, we see that in total for the year, 2,992,046 sheep were processed.
This figure is 201,579 above the total figure of 2021, which was 2,720,467.
Looking at the kill figures in more detail, 915,004 hoggets were processed in 2022, up 216,868 on the 2021 figure of 698,136.
The number of spring lambs processed at meat processing plants came to 1,621,463 head in 2022, which is back nearly 49,000 head on the 2021 figure of 1,670,162 head.
385,428 ewes and rams were processed in 2022, which shows an increase of 33,392 head on 2021 when 352,036 were processed.