The sheep trade has got a new lease of life with quotes for Thursday jumping 30c/kg on the back of tight supplies. Kildare Chilling is leading the charge with their base quote of €6.30/kg. This is leaving specialist finishers with quality-assured hoggets in a good position to push prices towards €6.45/kg to €6.50/kg, with top-priced hoggets delivering a 23kg carcase returning shy of €150 per head.

The tightness in supplies is very evident in last week’s kill reducing by a massive 15,132 head to total 43,308. The fall was driven primarily by lower availability of hoggets – the hogget kill was down 13,818hd to 34,630.

The ewe and ram kill remained steady in the region of 8,000hd while throughput of spring lambs was expected to tighten but not by as much as 1,209 sheep, with just 575 spring lambs processed.

Factory interest in spring lambs is growing as a result of tighter hogget supplies, with plants keen to use all avenues to maximise throughput.

This is reflected in plants this week starting to quote for spring lambs with prices on offer ranging from a base of €6.90/kg to €7.00/kg.

Demand in marts is also strong with butchers keen to source well fleshed lambs, a statement echoed by factories who say they are being offered lambs lacking significant flesh and will not be able to return the same price for out-of-spec lambs.

The latest increase is leaving hoggets running over €1/kg above the corresponding week in 2017, with prices then boosted by buying for the Easter trade. Spring lamb prices are running about 70c/kg to 80c/kg above last year’s levels. Both price increases are welcome as they will help to deal with significantly higher production costs.

A reduction in northern sheep coming south for direct slaughter is also contributing to the tightness in supply. There were just 4,751 sheep imported south last week, with northern factories greatly stepping up their efforts to secure sheep.

Quotes have increased by 30p/kg to £5.20/kg to £5.30/kg. This is the equivalent of €5.96/kg to €6.08/kg at 87.3p to the euro and €6.28/kg to €6.41/kg including VAT at 5.4%. There is scope, however, to negotiate higher. Specialist finishers and regular sellers are commanding upwards of £5.50/kg (€6.64/kg) for large lots of hoggets.

A rising hogget and spring lamb trade is also inserting more life into the ewe trade. Quotes range from €3.00/kg in ICM to a top of €3.25/kg in Kepak Athleague. Reports show top prices for ewes rising to €3.40/kg to €3.50/kg where traded in big numbers or with hoggets. It is worth checking paid weight limits (40kg to 46kg) with the mart also a good outlet for very heavy ewes.

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