Just over 70,000 sheep were slaughtered in week 25 this year, the week ending Sunday, June 25, an increase of 17,500 head on the previous week’s sheep kill.
This week, week 26, saw the Muslim festival Eid al Adha get underway, which tends to see a spike in demand for lamb.
While supply increased sharply in the week before the event, prices stayed more stable with €7.80/kg on the table for Quality Assured (QA) spring lamb and more money available in some cases.
The table below gives an overview of the sheep kill in week 26 of this year compared to last year and shows the cumulative sheep kill to date this year:
Category 2023
weekly2023
cumulative2022
weekly2022
cumulativeWeekly
Diff.Cumulative
Diff.%diff
weekly%diff cumulative Lambs/Hoggets 8,753 965,135 2,694 888,479 6059 76,656 225% 9% Spring Lambs 55,870 243,777 41,770 275,537 14,100 -31,760 34% -12% Ewes and Rams 5,444 132,996 6,423 135,467 -979 -2,471 -15% -2% Light Lambs 4 120 – 89 4 31 – 35% Total 70,071 1,342,028 50,887 1,299,572 19,184 42,456 38% 3%
It remains to be seen how prices will go in the coming weeks but conversations with farmers and mart management would suggest spring lamb supplies remain tighter than last year.
As can be seen from the table above, while the hogget supply is dropping, it is remaining well above last year’s levels due to a high carryover of last year’s lamb crop. Over 76,500 additional hoggets have been processed to date this year.
Over 55,000 spring lambs were slaughtered in week 25 of this year, but the overall spring lamb kill to date this year is down by nearly 32,000 head or 12%.
The graph below shows the weekly sheep kill to date this year compared to last year:
As can be seen from the graph above, supply spiked last week. The supply and demand scenario will continue to dictate the sheep trade into the coming weeks.