Sheep farmers are facing another challenging week, with factories looking to advance on last week’s €8-€10/head price drop and pull prices lower. As can be seen in the price table on the right, a number of plants are not quoting for Thursday.

Those that are have reduced hogget quotes from €5.50/kg to €5.20/kg, or €7/kg on a 23kg carcase. This brings the combined price reduction to €15 to €18 per head in the last three weeks. Ballon meats is the only plant holding its quote on €5.60/kg.

Plants remain active in sourcing hoggets, commenting that spring lamb availability is too low to allow a significant switchover. This begs the question if plants are implementing a greater price cut than what is occurring in our main export markets. Prices paid since the start of the week came under some pressure but most sellers up to Wednesday were negotiating €5.50/kg to €5.70/kg with specialised finishers feeding on contract arrangements reported as securing €5.80/kg and higher.

IFA National Sheep Committee chairman John Lynskey said farmers are resisting the price pressure and, despite the propaganda being used by factories to pull prices back, hoggets are scarce.

Spring lamb producers have two reasons for anger and frustration. Plants are looking to implement a similar price drop to hoggets, with ICM quoting €5.90/kg plus a 10c/kg QA bonus while Moyvalley are quoting €6.00 flat. An added frustration meeting farmers is the fact that many plants are slow to purchase spring lambs, with many sellers reporting agents delaying killing until next week. Lambs traded at the end of last week and over the weekend ranged from €6.15/kg to €6.40/kg. As the week progressed, prices eased with lambs trading on Wednesday moving from €6.00/kg to €6.25/kg for groups and seasonal producers linked to factory plants.

John Lynskey criticised the price pressure by factories signalling that it sends a very negative message to early lamb producers and will severely dent the confidence of producers committed to the production system.

NI price drop

Northern prices have also taken a severe hit. Hogget and spring lamb quotes have reduced by up to 40p/kg. Hoggets are trading at £3.50/kg, or the equivalent of €5.13/kg, while spring lamb quotes have fallen to £4.20/kg for today or the equivalent of €6.16/kg including VAT. Meanwhile, lamb prices exported into the French Rungis market have reduced 30c/kg with Grade 1 lamb trading from €5.90/kg to €6.00/kg.

The ewe trade is variable. Some plants are quoting as low as €3.00/kg while reports suggest many sellers are achieving €3.10/kg to €3.20/kg with agents and dealers specialising in the ewe market achieving €3.30/kg to €3.50/kg.