The lamb trade is steady with opening quotes for quality assured lambs at €7.80/kg.

This ranges from €7.60/kg plus a 20c/kg quality assurance (QA) payment in the two ICM plants to €7.70/kg plus 10c/kg QA in Kildare Chilling and €7.80/kg all in, at Ballon Meats.

Reports indicate other plants not quoting are operating in the same region on price.

Sellers with greater negotiating power and groups are securing returns of €7.85/kg to €7.90/kg.

Regular sellers are meeting resistance above this price, but, at the top end of the market, €8/kg is being paid to sellers with a higher bonus payment structure or to agents handling large numbers.

The number of slaughter-fit lambs appearing in marts seems to be significantly lower in recent days.

For example, Athenry Mart in Co Galway had a good entry of over 70 lots of lambs, but only 10% to 15% of these weighed above 50kg, when normally this would be closer to 25% to 30%-plus.

Such lambs sold from €170 to €175 in the main with a few lots above this range and selling to the mid-€180s.

It was a similar situation in Kilkenny Mart, with auctioneer George Candler describing the trade as “steady rather than spectacular”.

Lambs weighing 50kg to 51kg sold from the mid-€160s for factory type lambs to €180-plus for top-quality lots with a handful of heavier lambs weighing from 52kg to 58kg generating keen demand from butchers or wholesalers and selling to upwards of €190.

This batch of Charollais-cross lams weighing 52kg sold for €194 each (€3.73/kg).

These Charollais-cross lambs weighing 50kg were bid to €166 but not sold.

This mixed breed batch of lambs weighing 50kg sold for €168.

Weighing 48kg, these Charollais-cross and Suffolk-cross lambs sold for €166 each.

This batch of top-quality and well-fleshed Charollais-cross lambs weighing 52kg sold for €191 each (€3.67/kg).

This batch of fleshed lambs weighing 51kg sold for €186 each (€3.65/kg).

This batch of lambs weighing 47kg sold for €168 each (€3.57/kg).