The store trade last week ground to a halt as farmers flocked to the Highland Show. With only seven marts operating, sales throughout dropped to 532 head of cattle.

This has seen average prices drop but with numbers this low it does not give a true reflection of the current market.

Prices in Scottish factories have remained steady with prices pushing up slightly in price reporting abattoirs by 2p/kg, up to £3.85p/kg. Reporting abattoirs handled their highest weekly volume of young bulls in 2018 to date with an average price of £3.73/kg, with prices back by over 1p/kg overall.

UK-wide, steers are making an average price of £3.87/kg with heifers stronger at an average price of £3.90/kg.

Beef imports rise

The UK is a net importer of beef with the majority of these shipments coming from Ireland. According to the latest AHDB market report, imports from Ireland for the first four months of 2018 are up 6.5% compared to the same period in 2017.

A rise in exports of fresh and frozen beef were also reported for the UK with exports up 29% for April 2018 to a total of 9,300t.

The value of total UK fresh/frozen beef exports also increased, to total £144m in the first four months of 2018, an increase of 21%.