In what has been a steady decline of prices since the end of June, those following the sheep trade over the last year will come to expect the prices on offer this week.
This weeks price trends are similar to what Agriland has reported at the beginning of the month of September in both 2022 and 2021, which showed that base prices for lambs were back down to €6.00/kg.
The hogget trade has finished for some processors, while those still bringing spring lambs to factories are being urged by processors to finish them on concentrates, as killouts continue to be poor.
Sheep trade – spring lamb
This week, Irish Country Meats (ICM) is offering €6.00/kg plus a 20c quality assurance (QA) bonus, bringing its offering to €6.20/kg up to a 22kg carcass weight for a spring lamb – the same price as last week.
Other outlets have offered €6.05/kg plus a QA bonus of 15c/kg, a total of €6.20/kg for a spring lamb.
Cull ewes
ICM has continued to offer €2.80/kg for a cull ewe up to a 45kg carcass weight.
Other outlets have offered €2.65/kg for a cull ewe, a stark contrast to what was offered a year ago, which saw bases prices for a cull ewe at the beginning of September 2022 ranging from €3.10/kg to €3.30/kg.
Hoggets
ICM has not offered quotes for hoggets this week, while the sheep kill for the week ending Sunday, August 27, (week 34) showed that there were 367 hoggets brought to factories.
According to DAFM figures, the cumulative hogget kill this year is 84,600 head, or 9% ahead of the same time period last year with 979,233 hoggets processed in the first 34 weeks of this year.
The larger hogget kill is due to a carryover of lambs from the 2022 season which were primarily slaughtered in the first half of 2023.