This week, Camera at the mart was at the weekly sheep sale at Kilrea Mart,Co Derry. A good entry of lambs were met with a solid trade. However, sale prices were down on last week by an average of £3 to £4/head on the back of a lower finished lamb price this week.

Overall, lamb quality was good, with plenty of factory-fit quality assured lambs presented for sale. There was a good presence of buying agents around the ring keen to source numbers, but they were clearly working towards an upper purchase price of £80 (€102) and were trying to keep to this limit as much as possible.

There were a few exceptional pens of continental lambs that were purchased beyond this price at £82 to £83 (€105 to €106).

In general, continental-type lambs with good flesh and tight skin sold around £79 to £80 (€100 to €102) for 22kg to 23kg half-weight.

Plainer lots with more hill breeding but still carrying flesh sold from £76 to £78/head (€97 to €100).

There was a limited number of fat ewes offered for sale on the day, which helped to underpin prices.

Good-quality heavy-fleshed continental ewes sold well, with general prices pushing upwards on £79/head (€100). Plainer cross-bred ewes or ewes with more hill breeding sold for a general price closer to the £70/head mark (€89).