Most abattoirs were paying £3.55/kg for an R4L steer, with confidence that prices might continue to climb over the next few weeks.

The cow trade also rose, with many cull beef carcases making £3.00/kg. Tightness of supply and demand for roasting cuts at Easter is helping to add buoyancy to the beef market.

The official AHDB reported price is £3.56/kg for an R4L steer, which is 4p/kg up on the week.

This price puts Scottish clean cattle as the highest price in GB across all categories and grade.

Deadweight cow prices rose 6p/kg to £2.59/kg for an O-4L carcase, which is 8p/kg less than northern England. Some good carcases were making £3/kg paid by abattoirs.

Warmer weather and longer days seems to have kicked off grass fever to a certain extent, with store prices strengthening at marts.

Lamb price

The official lamb price continued to climb to average £3.77/kg across GB.

Meanwhile, mart prices dipped at sales after the Easter demand had been satisfied.

The live market was trading at around £2.08/kg for medium-weight lambs, which is back 1p/kg as the Easter demand starts to fall. Heavier lambs rose again by 1p/kg on the week to £1.93/kg liveweight.

Numbers of lambs into the live ring fell 2,000/head to 25,900 traded last week. This is the first full week after the ewe hogg scheme allows claimed animals to be sold. There were 20 new-season lambs sold through marts in the last week. Cast ewes through the ring were similar levels to last week at 4,269 as the average price didn’t move at £70/head.