The latest sheep kill figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) have shown that the throughput of spring lambs has crossed one million head in 2023.
Taking a look at this year’s throughput figures to date, 2,246,629 sheep have been processed so far.
Of that figure, 981,227 have been hoggets, 1,006,224 were spring lambs, with the rest made up of ewes and rams (259,040) and a small portion of light lambs (138 head).
The table below gives an overview of the sheep kill for the week ending Sunday, October 15, (week 41) and the cumulative kill to date this year compared to the same time period in 2022.
Type 2023
week 412023 cumulative 2022 weekly 2022 cumulative Weekly
differenceCumulative difference 23 vs. 22 % weekly difference 23 vs. 22 % cumulative difference Lambs/hoggets 265 981,227 880 901,635 -615 79,592 -70% 9% Spring lambs 49,633 1,006,224 52,167 1,083,248 -2,534 -77,024 -5% -7% Ewes and rams 10,680 259,040 12,419 299,841 -1,739 -40,801 -14% -14% Light lambs 1 138 19 137 -18 1 -95% 1% Total 60,579 2,246,629 65,485 2,284,861 -4,906 -38,232 -7 -2%
While it was reported in the sheep kill figures of week 40 that spring lamb figures were up by over 3,000 since the week prior, the number of spring lambs slaughtered in week 40 has dropped significantly.
A total of 49,633 lambs were slaughtered in week 41, which is 2,534 fewer than the number sent for processing in the previous week.
The cumulative total of lambs slaughtered in 2023 is currently 7% behind the cumulative total for 2022.
This year’s cumulative throughput of lambs and rams is also behind by 14% compared to the cumulative total for last year up this point.
While numbers of lambs/hoggets are quite low, the 265 sent for processing in week 41 is 615 behind the same week in 2022, a 70% decrease.