This week's sheep trade sees prices remain steady. However, weight limits on lambs reduced at one outlet, while another outlet is holding its hogget price for the start of the week, but concerned prices may drop as the week progresses.

The steady trade this week comes as Ramadan is set to kick off on Friday, February 28, a time of the year when there is traditionally a spike in the demand for lamb. However, this year that price bump has failed to materialise.

Despite this, the sheep trade remains in a positive position compared to other years and the overall hogget and cull ewe trade remains largely positive.

The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) president Sean McNamara has said that up to €9.40/kg is available for hoggets this week, with €5.00-5.30/kg available for cull ewes at the higher-end of the price scale this week.

Kepak is starting the week quoting €5.00-5.10/kg for cull ewes and €9.00/kg for Quality Assured (QA) hoggets. Procurement staff at the outlet has said prices may drop as the week progresses,

Irish Country Meats (ICM) has pulled its maximum carcass weight from 24kg to 23.5kg. A spokesperson from the processor also warned that it may reduce this further to 23kg.

ICM is quoting €8.80/kg plus a 20c/kg QA bonus for hoggets this week, leaving €9.00/kg on offer here. The processor is quoting €5.00/kg for cull ewes.

Kildare Chilling has no official quote for hoggets but is quoting €5.00-5.20 for cull ewes.

Ballon Meats in Co. Carlow is quoting €9.00/kg for hoggets and €5.20/kg for cull ewes.

There were 450 sheep on offer at Kilkenny Mart today (Monday, February 24) with "trade similar to last week" according to Kilkenny Mart's George Chandler.

Cull ewes reached €240/head while butcher hoggets reached €227/head for a pen of five hoggets with an average weight of 68kg that made €227 or €3.34/kg.

Factory hoggets reached €198/head for a pen of 10 hoggets with an average weight of 48kg that made €4.13/kg.

Store hoggets made up to €4.26/kg for a pen of 10 hoggets that weighed 39kg and sold for €166/head.