The first full week of 2025 has got off to a strong start for the sheep trade with factory price offerings increasing by up to 20c/kg in some cases.
At the top-end of the price scale, hogget prices have surpassed €9.00/kg in cases with as high as €9.20/kg being paid this week. Up to €4.70/kg is available for cull ewes in cases.
Irish Country Meats (ICM) is quoting €8.70/kg plus a 20c/kg Quality Assurance (QA) bonus for hoggets this week leaving €8.90/kg on offer here. For cull ewes, ICM is quoting €4.40/kg up to 45kg carcass weight.
Kildare Chilling is quoting €8.70/kg for hoggets plus a 10c/kg Quality Assurance bonus leaving €8.80/kg on offer for hoggets here. This outlet is quoting €4.20/kg plus a 10c/kg QA bonus for ewes with carcass weights ranging from 35-43kg.
Other outlets are quoting €8.90/kg for QA hoggets and €4.30-4.40/kg for ewes.
Sheep trade at Headford Mart
Headford Mart in Co. Galway hosted its first sheep sale of the year on Saturday, January 4, with almost 250 sheep on offer in the sale.
Prices in the sale reached €229/head for a pen of 56kg ram lambs with cull ewe prices topping out at €210/head for a 140kg cull ewe.
Other prices from the sale included €226/head for a pen of 52kg ram lambs and €178/head for a pen of 45kg ewe lambs. A lighter pen of ram lambs with an average weight of 29kg made €100/head.
Supply outlook for lambs
Bord Bia has forecast supplies of sheep for processing to remain “subdued” across Europe in the short term. The subdued supply is forecast due to the contraction in the breeding ewe flock.
While this tighter supply dynamic supports higher deadweight prices, the Irish Food Board has cautioned that “it creates challenges when securing market returns for Irish lamb”.
Consumers in Europe continue to be highly price sensitive and the European Commission is forecasting a 1% decrease in lamb consumption for 2025.