As Easter comes to a close for another year, sheep farmers will look back and say “what could have been”.

A month prior to Easter, the sheep trade was thriving, with hoggets making upwards of €6.00/kg. The hope was that spring lambs would follow suit and that early-lambing farmers would be rewarded with good prices.

However, instead, the coronavirus outbreak broke that momentum and prices – across the board – took a hit.

Farmers that sold spring lambs just before Covid-19 broke out were reportedly getting up to €7.00/kg, with base prices of €6.50/kg being quoted by meat processing facilities.

Currently, base prices are hovering around the €6.10/kg and €6.20/kg mark. However, if we look back to 2019, at roughly the same period, base prices for spring lambs were around the €6.00/kg mark.

The fact that foodservice outlets have closed throughout the country, prices for spring lambs are still healthy considering farmers were getting less last year.

Quotes for hoggets are up 60c/kg compared to this time last year, so despite prices crashing, they are still up on last year’s levels and the fact they recovered so quickly was also a good sign.

Meat processing facilities are urging farmers not to hold onto their lambs and to sell them as they come fit.

Factories are paying up to 20kg carcass weight for spring lambs, so it’s important farmers handle their stock regularly and draft lambs as soon as they are ready to kill.

At the moment, going by what factories are reporting, the hoggets that are coming in are of a “very mixed quality, with overweight hoggets becoming a huge problem”.

A contact in one factory, in particular, said: “The cuts from these heavy carcasses are much harder to market and are not what consumers want.”

Both spring lamb and hogget quotes are up on last week’s levels, which is good news for farmers that have stock ready for the factory.

Taking a look at the quotes on offer, both Irish Country Meats (ICM) and Kepak Athleague (Tuesday quote) are offering a base price of 610c/kg – up to a carcass weight of 20kg – for spring lambs.

Whereas, Kildare Chilling (Tuesday quote) is offering a base price of 620c/kg for spring lambs up to a carcass weight of 20kg.

Taking a look at the quotes for hoggets, ICM and Kildare Chilling (Tuesday quote) are offering a base price of 560c/kg, while Kepak Athleague (Tuesday quote) is offering a base price of 550c/kg.

When QA bonuses are added in, this leaves prices standing at 565-570c/kg for hoggets.

Farmers involved in producer groups are reportedly getting up to 640c/kg for spring lambs and as much as 590c/kg for hoggets.

Turning to the cast ewe quotes, base quotes are ranging from 250c/kg up to 270c/kg. When QA is taken into account, prices of up 280c/kg are achievable.

During the week ending April 5, the number of hoggets processed decreased by 4,070 head and amounted to 37,019 head.

Cast (ewe and ram) supplies at the Department of Agriculture approved sheep export plants stood at 3,183 head – a decrease of 1,392 head – for the week ending April 5.

Furthermore, overall supplies decreased by 5,464 head during the week ending April 5.

Cumulative figures for the year to date have reached 692,862 head, which is an increase of over 82,000 head compared to the 2019 figure of 610,561 head.